Apricity
by AndytheIcelander
Summary: Levy and Lucy finally start coming in terms with their feelings for their Dragon Slayers, and just in time seeing as they are just about to start their season. focuses mainly on Gajevy Rated M for future smut
1. Plotting

**Apricity - The feeling of the warmth of the sun in winter**

* * *

The air was starting to cool in Fiore as fall was beginning to show its colours, the cool wind hit Levy's bare thighs as she made her way through Magnolia. She didn't mind the cold, she actually kind of enjoyed it, although she did still enjoy the heat of summer and everything that came with it. She just enjoyed the fall more, she liked how the air slowly cooled down from the summer heat and the leaves started changing colours and falling. It was her favourite season if she had to be honest and despite it being the season of big comfy sweaters, she still wore her more summer like attire, the cold didn't bother her and she liked it when it softly bit at her skin.

Her thoughts of the cold had to end though as she entered the guild hall where warmth greeted her, some of which was coming from Natsu's flame as him and Gray were having their brawl which always ended up getting majority of the guild involved until someone, mainly Erza or the master would eventually stop them due the damage they were all causing. Levy stood in the doorway for a little longer as to avoid most of the fighting for a little bit longer as more and more guildmates started getting involved in the fight as it went on, but since people were starting to get thrown through columns, tables and walls already, it was probably going to be stopped soon, which Makarov thankfully did soon enough.

Levy noticed that Jet and Droy weren't there yet so she made her way to Lucy, who was gently rubbing a bump on her head.

"Hey Lu." Levy began as she sat next to her friend.

"Hey Lev." The blonde said while still rubbing her head "I really need to stop getting in between those guys…"

"Yeah, but sometimes it can be really hard, it tends to get really rowdy, plus things thrown around all over the place." Levy laughed softly.

"Including pink haired dragon slayers who don't notice that they just landed on top of you until you're yelling at them for it." Lucy groaned.

"So that's what happened, but hey, at least it wasn't someone else." The solid script mage nudged her friend with her elbow and gave her a suggestive wink.

"Levy! Not you too!" Lucy began "Me and Natsu are just friends."

Levy just gave the blonde a blank look "You might be now, but there's no denying that you like him."

"Yeah, like you like Gajeel? You obviously like him, everybody knows it." Lucy got back at her friend by doing the same wink and nudging with the elbow.

"I don't like him...I mean….I think….shut up." Levy nudged her friend back a little harder than earlier, she did admit to herself that she did like the iron dragon slayer, it was just that she felt like there was no reason what so ever for him to like her.

"If you tease me, I tease you, it's just fair." Lucy laughed and eventually got Levy to join her.

The two decided not to keep teasing each other for the moment and instead started talking about the most recent books they've read, Levy of course, had read a few more than her friend, though both were pretty avid readers and could always recommend something for the other, which some found to be strange because eventually those two would have read every last book in the whole wide world.

While the two talked, most everyone who hadn't been at the guildhall when Levy arrived where starting to show up, except for those who were already on missions. Though Levy noticed that neither Jet nor Droy were there and she was starting to think that they went on a mission without her.

"Hey Lu, have you seen Jet and Droy today?" She had to admit that she was a little worried about her two boys, she didn't exactly mind all that much if they went without her, but usually they would have told her before.

"Yeah, but they were leaving when I came here." Lucy answered her blue haired friend, noting the hint of worry on her face "but I'm sure they'll come back later."

"Jet and Droy went on a mission together that's pretty far east." Mirajane had overheard the two talking while she was waiting tables, she too was a little surprised that they hadn't told Levy. "They didn't tell you?"

"No, they didn't." Levy sighed "Well at least I know where they are now, any idea how long it will take?" Levy just wanted to be sure when her friends should be coming back, since she worried just as much about them as they worried about her...ok not just as much, but she did love the two and only wanted to make sure that they were safe.

"Well it's a rescue mission so it's hard to say, but it could take at least a week, depends on how it goes for them." Mirajane smiled at the petite girl who was starting to look a little less worried "If you'd like, I could set you up on a mission with Gajeel, maybe you two could finally get together then."

"Mira! Mot you too!" Levy couldn't help the slight blush that was starting to tint her cheeks "First Lu and now you."

"Trust me, it's not just us two." Lucy began "Everyone can see it."

"Just like how everyone can see that you and Natsu have a thing for each other?" Levy tried getting back at her friend.

"Yeah, when are you going to make a move Lucy?" Mirajane now directed her attention to the blonde.

"It's not like that, we're...just friends, is all." Lucy couldn't help but look away from the other girls, a futile attempt to hide her blush.

"Friends can make the best lovers sometimes, but you two better start being honest with each other, because those boys are too stubborn for their own good to do anything about it either." And with that, Mirajane went back to working. Leaving the two girls to think about her words.

"I guess we should talk about this…" Levy scratched her cheek, her head was telling her to just give up on her feelings for the Iron Dragon slayer, while her heart was telling her to strut over to his corner and just start making out with him right then and there for everyone to see. She mentally noted not to listen to her heart at that moment.

"Yeah...just not here for everyone to hear, and my place is out since it's pretty much an open house for everyone at this point." Lucy groaned, whenever she went home, at least one of her guildmates were there, and most often it was Natsu with Happy in tow. She didn't exactly mind all that much when he just showed up randomly, but she still needed her privacy sometimes.

"True, but my room at the dorm isn't exactly the best place either, by now it's more books than room." Levy admitted, she probably should do something about it, but she kinda liked being surrounded by books when she slept, and as long as it didn't bury her alive, she was good.

The two of them started thinking of a place they could talk about their little boy trouble but most places they could go to were public or cost money, and those weren't exactly the best options. But they weren't gonna give up that easily, what kind of Fairy Tail mages would they be if they did.

"There's an easy fix to your problem girls." Cana placed her barrel on the table, slightly startling the girls as she did so "You invite me and we can talk in my room, simple as that."

The two just looked at each other, of course it was an easy fix, but they had no idea what kind of advice Cana would give, though they knew that they could trust her, and she could be really insightful. She was a card mage after all and so she knew a thing or two when it came to life problems and solving them.

"It's settled then, we'll go to my place later tonight!" Cana went back to her drinking but didn't leave the table, which of course got them all involved in the conversation that was going on between the other guildmates, though most of it was about who could outdrink who and who was stronger. But it was a nice change of pace, after all, this evening it would be time to get Levy and Lucy to finally admit their feelings for their own respective Dragon slayers.

"Anyway, I probably should clean up a little bit at home." Cana finished her barrel and let out a satisfied sigh. "I'll see you two later." She patted Lucy's shoulder and made her way out of the guild with a slight sway, though it was barely noticeable.

Natsu decided that this would be the best time to show up and sat next to Lucy while happy flew above them. Levy just smiled at her pink haired guildmate and at Lucy's shocked reaction of his arrival, the two were as close as she was with Team Shadow Gear if not more. Levy often wondered if she could ever be this close with Gajeel, but she kept telling herself that it probably would never happen.

Levy watched the pair talk with the occasional remark coming from Happy, it was obvious that they certainly did care for each other, it was very normal for Fairy Tail mages, they were all family after all. But for those who had known Natsu since he was a kid could easily tell that he was different around Lucy than anyone else, and Levy believed that she knew Lucy well enough that she could tell that she was also different around the Dragon slayer.

Levy couldn't help but glance at the direction of Gajeel's corner, where he was sitting with Pantherlily, she noticed they were talking about something, but seeing as she couldn't read lips, she had no idea about what. She could have sworn though that Gajeel glanced at her a couple of times.

The blue haired mage started taking part in the conversation after Lucy had gotten her to answer a question about what kind of missions were the best. Of course Natsu loved the ones where he could go all out, Lucy enjoyed the more intellectual ones but she also loved the ones that brought her to new places, Levy on the other hand absolutely adored translation missions and book related ones.

As they kept talking to each other, they lost track of time and before they knew it, it was probably time for the girls to head over to Cana's.

"Oh we probably should get going Lev." Lucy looked at the clock on the wall, noting how late it was getting.

"We should." Levy looked at the clock "Time certainly does fly."

"Where you guys going?" Natsu asked his blonde partner.

"We're going to….uhm…" Lucy began.

"We're going to the dorm, she's going to be getting some of my books." Levy quickly finished for Lucy "I really need to get rid of some."

Lucy agreed and thankfully, Natsu bought it so he didn't question it any further, of course he would have like to be around Lucy a little longer, but he knew not to sneak into the girl's dorm, it usually wasn't a very good ide.

"You better be telling the truth about giving me some of your books Lev." Lucy whispered to the shorter of the two, letting out a soft giggle.

"Fine, after we're done with Cana, alright?" Levy answered and the two casually walked over to Fairy hills.

The closer they got to the dorm, the more nervous they both became, they knew that they were probably going to have to admit their feelings and most likely were going to get a lot of advice on what to do to get the boys to make their move. That is if Cana wouldn't convince them to make a move first, which was very likely that she'd at least suggest that they would do.

The two went inside and stopped in front of Cana's door, both swallowing the lump that was forming in their throats. But before either of them could knock, Cana opened the door and invited them inside, or pulled them inside more like.

"I hope you don't mind that I invited Juvia as well, seeing as she might have some inside knowledge on a certain tall dark and handsome." Cana winked at Levy and nudged her with her elbow.

Juvia was sitting on the floor by the little table and waved at the two obviously nervous girls. She knew that she wasn't exactly an expert on relationships but she had been in a few before and she was very open about her love for Gray, so Cana knew that she could be of more help than just with Gajeel.

They all got comfortable around the table with Cana bringing a few snacks and some beers, she also had some juice for those who didn't want any alcohol, though that would run out quickly since she didn't really buy much of it in the first place.

"First thing's first." The card mage began "Admit it." She playfully glared at Lucy and Levy, knowing full well that it would make them a little flustered. She had to admit that she liked it when people got flustered, she found it cute.

"A-admit what?" Lucy tried to play dumb, though she knew exactly what she meant. Meanwhile Levy just fiddled with her dress.

"Nonononono no, none of that, you know what I mean." Cana leaned over the table and poked the blonde's nose. "Juvia, give them an example." Juvia nodded.

"Juvia loves Gray-sama." She said with ease, she practically said it every day so it was nothing new to her, though as much as she wanted to say more, she had to bite her tongue since tonight was about Lucy and Levy.

"See, Juvia can admit it easily, honestly, she embraces it, but we'll get to that later, now it's your turn." The dark haired girl looked at the still slightly flustered girls, waiting for them to finally admit that they liked the Dragon slayers. Frankly their denial was starting to frustrate her.

"Alright fine, I like Natsu." Lucy finally said, a blush tinting her cheeks.

"Be specific sweetie, do you just like him, or like _like_ him." Cana teased.

"You know what I mean!" Lucy spat out, but she had to admit that she did feel like a weight had been lifted off of her.

"Alright, alright, sorry." Cana laughed "But now it's your turn Levy." And the attention moved away from Lucy on to the shortest mage there.

"I...I guess I like Gajeel…" Levy kept fiddling with her dress, she already knew that she had a crush on Gajeel, but she just couldn't imagine him actually liking her back in that way.

"You guess?" Juvia asked the other blue haired mage.

"Ok I do like him, I really do." Levy admitted with a bittersweet smile.

"See, that wasn't so hard." Cana to swig out of her beer and slammed it against the table "Now, the boys." Cana looked at the girls mischievously, she was determined to play matchmaker and she sure as hell was going to get Juvia to help her.

"Even Juvia can see that they like you back." Juvia also had a mischievous glint in her eyes, love was amongst the most beautiful things in the world to her and she wanted her friends to be happy and to be able to feel love as well.

Lucy got a little more flustered than Levy at that. It was easier for her to believe that Natsu liked her back, but Levy still had doubts, she just couldn't help it. She tried being an optimistic but when it came to certain things, she couldn't help but to be a little pessimistic.

Juvia noticed the look on Levy, but she knew better than anyone that Gajeel did like her more than he'd liked anyone before, Juvia also noticed the change in his behaviour whenever he was around her or even when Juvia brought the solid script mage up, Gajeel always seemed a little happier.

"Juvia knows that Gajeel likes Levy a lot, trust Juvia, she's known him for a long time." The water mage grabbed Levy's shoulder, trying to reassure her. This brought Levy out of her thoughts, she still wasn't sure if Gajeel really did like her, but she Juvia was right, she'd known him for longer than anyone else at the guild so she was going to put a little bit of faith in her.

"Yeah, you're right." Levy smiled at her fellow blue haired mage which earned her a smile as well.

"Sorry to interrupt, but does Natsu really like me?" Lucy was starting to have her own doubts, she could see it, and she did want it, but she was a little sceptical about it all. Maybe she was just seeing things because she had a crush on him, maybe he just saw them as friends.

"Lu, me and Cana have known Natsu since we were kids, and he definitely likes you." Levy reassured her friends.

"Yeah, it's just a question if he knows how to handle those feelings." Cana jokingly said, though they knew that Natsu could be a little oblivious at times, so maybe he really didn't know that he had a crush on her, but for now they'd just have to rely on the fact that Natsu was much smarter than he looked.

"Alright, enough of that, we need to start talking about the most important thing." Cana said, the mischievous smile back on her face.

"Important thing?" Levy asked, she had an idea what Cana was going to say, but honestly, she was hoping that she didn't mean that she and Lucy were going to have to do that in public. In a room with only Gajeel, sure, why not, anyone else, not in a million.

"I'm talking about seduction, you two need to get their attention, make them an offer they can't resist." The card mage crossed her arms proudly, there was no turning away now, those two were going to get their men and she was going to make sure it happened.

"I don't think I can do that." Lucy said quickly, she knew she had a lot of sex appeal, and she had tried to seduce her way out of paying to high of a price, but seducing someone that she liked she hadn't done before.

"Sure you can, you got curves in all the right places and I know that you're no stranger to flaunting them a little, so all we really need to do is aim it at him specifically." Cana said.

"Yeah, but, I don't know how!" Lucy said, throwing her arms into the air to emphasize her point.

"Just calm down Lucy, We'll figure this out, plus you'll have our help." Cana reassured her.

"Juvia agrees, Lucy just needs a little help." Juvia said, smiling at the blonde who was probably more nervous about being rejected rather than having to seduce the object of her desires.

"What about me?." Levy began "I'm short, flat and Gajeel has used my head as a hand rest on more than one occasion, plus I have like, zero sex appeal." She wasn't exactly the most confident when it came to her figure or height, she usually didn't announce it, but it still bothered her.

"Opposites attract, honey" Cana stated "plus you have an ass to die for, don't forget that." She winked at the displeased solid script mage.

"She does have a point there, Lev." For once, Lucy couldn't help but agree with Cana, not only that, Gajeel did seem to like her, so she really didn't have to worry all that much, if only she'd just accept that.

Levy looked at the reassuring looks that they were giving her, and Cana's mischievous one, she wanted to argue but she just couldn't. She knew that Opposites could attract and Gajeel was basically her polar opposites, so she just took a deep breath.

"Alright, fine, what do you suggest we do?" Levy asked, realising that if she could admit her feelings out loud, she might as well make a move as well, especially since she'd have help, so if things went wrong, she could blame someone other than herself.

"Perfect, now, how's your flirting?" The dark haired girl asked the two victims. Flirting was only step one though, and there were quite a few that she'd need to get them through. Lucy at least had some knowledge about flirting, but she'd need to work with Levy a bit more seeing as she didn't have a lot of time to flirt in the first place.

"The right words can get you laid, and they can get you your man." Cana poked Levy's nose teasingly.

"But what if I don't want to get laid?" Levy tried defending herself, she had to admit though that she kinda wanted to with Gajeel.

"Then you don't need to get laid, it's your choice." Cana said.

"And Gajeel does know the difference between a yes and a no, so Levy has no need to worry." Juvia added.

"That's not what I meant, but thank you." The solid script mage knew that they were only trying to help, but she did kind of feel like she was forcing herself to do this, that it wasn't something that she'd normally do. But she did like Gajeel, and she did enjoy being around him, so this could help them get along, that is if things wouldn't go horribly wrong and they'd never speak to each other again, and she really didn't want that.

"Levy, all you really need to do is get his attention, and there are a lot of ways you can do that." Cana patted Levy's shoulder and kept talking "We're telling you what we know, but it's all up to you, but you better make a move, it's not like you're getting any younger."

The girls kept talking until it was very late, Juvia and Cana trying to get the other two to make a move on the dragon slayers, once they knew what to do, they'd do great. At least they hoped they would, the boys liked them for who they were so they'd just need to spice it up a little bit.

After Lucy had left and everyone else had gone into their own room, Cana cleaned up a little bit, which mainly just meant throwing the empty bottles into a corner and ignoring it until some time later. Now all she could do was wait for both Levy and Lucy to make a move, and that they let her know about everything that happens between them.

Meanwhile, Levy was lying in her bed and staring at the ceiling, she had no idea how to get someone's attention in a seductive kind of way. She knew she was cute, but sexy? That really wasn't her forte and she wasn't sure if Cana was of much help since she just made her embarrassed, so Levy decided that she'd go to the library, first thing in the morning to see if there were any books that could help her.

* * *

Meanwhile in another part of Magnolia, a certain Iron Dragon Slayer was pacing around his apartment, while his cat looked at him worriedly.

"It can't be that bad, Gajeel? Can it?" Lily asked Gajeel.

"That's the thing, I have no idea, I've gone through this before, but never like this." Gajeel stopped pacing and crossed his arms, it was almost time for that dreaded month and it was the first time he was really worried about it.

"Like what?" Lily prodded, he'd been with the man for a couple or so years now, but this was something very new to the exceed, Gajeel tended to keep his composure most of the time. So to see him pacing around due to nervousness wasn't something that Lily knew how to handle.

"With her, usually I can control myself, but with her around…" Gajeel couldn't finish, this only happened every other year, and Gajeel had been lucky enough to have met the blue haired mage some time after the last one. But now he knew that he liked her and that she was obviously meant to be more than just a friend, but how could he tell her that. It's not like mating is a human thing to do.

"I'm sure she'll understand if you explain." Lily said.

"That's the thing, I'm not going to explain, I'm gonna keep away from her until it all blows over." The slayer dropped down on a chair and sighed "The less she knows the better, besides, I don't deserve her."

"Because of what happened between your old guild and Fairy Tail?" Lily asked, Gajeel had told him most of what had happened, but Lily knew that there were a few things that Gajeel kept to himself, and Lily wasn't going to prod.

"Something like that…" Gajeel answered while looking out the window. As much as he wanted to just tell how how he felt, he couldn't, not after what he had done to her. All he could do to make up for it was to protect her, and keep his promise of making her big, so that's what he was going to do.

Lily sighed, he knew that the dragon slayer liked Levy a lot, and that he was much different around her than he normally was, but he knew that Gajeel was trying to force himself not to like her. The exceed could never know what went inside the iron fools head, and he wasn't going to start prodding now, but he knew that if he wouldn't do anything about his feelings, he'd only end up getting hurt.

"You know." Lily began "It's alright to forgive yourself." Lily went out for his evening flight then, leaving Gajeel alone with his thoughts.

"If only it was that easy…" He said to himself and decided that he really needed a shower to cool off.

* * *

 **A/N: Thank you so much for reading!**

 **Please rate and review!**


	2. Bad handwriting

Levy woke up earlier than normal that day, she quickly got dressed and went to the library the moment she was ready, she decided to start with the Magnolia public library, at least that way she wouldn't have to explain to anyone from the guild as to why she was reading a self help book about seduction. Plus the public library had a bigger selection of books and access to the restricted area due to being a Fairy Tail mage and all. Although she was pretty sure that she wouldn't need the restricted books this time.

She greeted the librarian and headed straight for the self help section of the library, she skimmed over the titles one shelf at a time, grabbing each book that she thought could help her with her little problem. She knew that she probably should just ask for some more advice from Juvia or any of the other girls, but right now she needed to think, and reading was a good excuse for her to get some alone time.

Ending up with just a few books in her hands from all that searching, Levy sat down by a table in the corner and away from the few other guests at the library. She quickly went through the books thanks to her gale-force reading glasses. But both books basically just told her the same thing, be confident and show off a little, of course there was more too it, but that was basically it, that and little touches.

Levy then thought about what Cana had said the night before, about flirting and using her assets. Though she may not be the best flirt around, it couldn't be that hard to look sexy. She'd need to muster up the courage first, she did tend to wear rather short dresses, and she was wearing a bikini top and a vest over it when she first met Gajeel, not that she thought back to that event fondly. So maybe getting Lucy to go shopping with her sometime later wasn't such a bad idea.

But first, she'd need to take a peek into the restricted section, she really didn't need to do it, but she could find some very interesting things in there, especially about ancient magic and old legends that no one really remembered. So Levy put the self help books away before making her way to the restricted section of the mage was alone in the section, save for a single library worker who was simply there to watch over everything just in case something happened. But it didn't phase Levy in the slightest, she skimmed over the book titles, noticing a few that she hadn't seen before, though one caught her attention and made her completely forget about the others.

Levy pulled the book out and almost dropped it, though it wasn't very thick, it made up for it in size, it was a bit taller than the other books in the shelf and was heavier than it looks, she noticed that it had a pretty thick lock on it which explained the weight a little bit. But not enough for her to almost drop it when she pulled it out, this book was becoming even more of a mystery than it began as.

She put the book and the nearest table and sat down in front of it, inspecting the lock that kept it closed, it was infused with magic, which probably resulted in the added weight and why it captivated her so much since the book didn't seem to have a title anywhere on it now that she took a second look at it.

The book looked normal despite the magic it was infused with, leather bound and worn from age, the pages looked yellowed and a little crusty, nothing really out of the ordinary. But she couldn't help but wonder why someone wanted to keep the contents so locked up, something was telling her to just leave it be, but she just couldn't do that, she was too curious for that.

So Levy started trying her best to open it and after a while she just went over to the counter and asked if they had a key, which unfortunately, they did not. It was back to the table then to stare at the book, the lock looked very normal so maybe she could try picking it, but it could be a bad thing due to the magic. But Levy had limited options already so she decided to try picking it.

She pulled a couple of bobby pins out of her hair and started getting to work. She barely knew what she was doing, she wasn't exactly prone to pick locks, but she did know how to pick a lock in theory, so it was about time she put it to practice.

The solid script mage had no idea how long she'd been trying to get the lock open with the pins, but she knew that it had been a while and she was starting to get hungry, but just as she was about to give up, the lock opened. Some magic spilled out but it fizzled out soon after, but Levy noticed something else that was happening, the title was starting to appear and she waited anxiously for it to finally reveal itself fully.

 _'The secret of Dragon Slayers'_

Now that was an interesting title and the blue haired bookworm couldn't wait to see the contents of the book and she quickly but carefully opened the book and on the first page the title was handwritten along with the author's name. On the next page was an authors note that explained that this would most likely be the last thing he'd ever do as he believed that he was in danger. There wasn't much else written there except that all of the things written in the book would come from his late friend who had been a Dragon Slayer and told the author everything through letters.

As she flipped through the book, Levy got rather disappointed, it was obviously written in a hurry so she couldn't read everything, but she could make out that Dragon slayers had instincts closer to those of an actual Dragon, which she already knew thanks to Natsu being in the guild for such a long time. The book also mentioned something that reminded her of the Dragonification, but that was just about it that she could understand. But there was one page that was written a bit clearer than the others, only problem was that it was the last page and it had a big splotch of spilled ink on it which obscured majority of the text. But what she could make out was that something happened with Dragon Slayers every other year for a month that could affect their behaviour, unfortunately that was all she got.

Levy sighed and closed the book again, she had hoped that the book would tell her something new about Dragon Slayer magic but in the end it didn't really tell her anything, just left her with more questions. But now she could at least go to the guild hall, she'd been in the library for hours now, most of that time spent on trying to open a damn book, but it was time for her to check the guild and tell Lucy about the book she found.

She put the book back on the shelf and made her way to the guild, the sun was pretty low, which explained why she was so hungry since she'd gone to the library before noon and now it was just about dinner time. The air was also colder than from the day before, and she was still wearing her short dress so she could enjoy the cool air on her thighs yet again.

After she pushed open the doors to the guild hall, she looked over the crowd to see if she could find her blonde friend. She saw Gajeel in his corner and waved to him when she noticed that he was looking at her as well. Lucy was sitting at a table with Cana, Juvia, Gray and Natsu and by the looks of it, the two males were about to start a fight.

Levy walked over to the table and sat next to Lucy, exchanging a few hellos before the boys ended up starting their fight for real, thankfully Erza stopped them before either of them could start using their magic. But while the boys were busy being scolded, Levy used her chance to talk to the girls.

"So where have you been all day?" Cana asked Levy before she had a chance to speak first.

"The library, I was doing some...research." She didn't exactly want to tell them about the self help books.

Cana chuckled and patted the shorter mage "Of course you were." She then looked at her and Lucy "But on to the matter at hand, you guys thought of something?"

Lucy scratched the back of her neck and shook her head. But Levy on the other hand had something to say, she leaned forward and the others followed and she whispered "I was thinking about...new, stuff to wear, and...things like that."

"Atta girl!" Cana said loudly, making Levy quickly shush her before anyone starting asking any questions, thankfully no one seemed to take any notice.

"I honestly didn't expect that from you." Lucy remarked "And I thought you were the modest type." She giggled.

"I kinda am, but I'm 17 years old so I guess it's time to try something new." Levy laughed awkwardly, she had no idea what she was getting herself into but she knew that Cana and Mirajane were both right, if they didn't do something, nothing would really happen since the boys were probably too stubborn to ever make a move themselves.

"I like the way you think Levy." Cana said after taking a big swig out of her barrel "And lucky for you two, I know just where to get all the best outfits and lingerie." She then added proudly.

"I'm going to need to take a mission first, need to save up what I got for next month's rent." Lucy sighed, she really didn't like having those kind of problems, but it wasn't like she had much of choice if she wanted to keep the apartment.

"Is it alright if I come with this time, Lu?" Levy asked her blonde friend, she couldn't really remember a time where they took a mission just the two of them, so it was good to start now, and she could tell her about the book she found earlier that day.

"That would be great!" Lucy stood up and Levy followed soon after "Let's see if we can find something."

They rushed over to the request board to see if they could find anything that would fit the two of them and wouldn't take too long. Of course those kind of missions usually didn't pay as well, but still, a little bit of extra cash was always good to have.

"Here's one." Lucy pointed at one of the fliers on the board "The library of Hargeon needs mages to help translate grimoires from the far east." She read out loud after she pulled it off of the board.

"Hargeon isn't far away, and the pay isn't so bad either." Levy found the request to be rather promising, it shouldn't take very long since both of them knew more than a few languages, plus with gale-force reading glasses, it would cut the time by half.

The two agreed that they would take this mission since it was the best option they currently had, most of the others that looked good were either too far away or just didn't pay as well as this one. They took the flyer over to the counter to let Mira know that they were taking it, and after that was done, they'd go home to get some sleep before they'd leave the next morning.

Before they left through the doors, Levy noticed that Gajeel was gone, she wasn't surprised that she'd miss that he had left, since her attention had been directed at something else the short time she'd been in the guild hall.

"Lev, you there?" Lucy waved her hand in front of her friends face who seemed to have spaced out for a second.

"What? Oh yeah, yeah, sorry." Levy apologized and the two started moving again. They walked together for as long as they could, but eventually they had to split up due to their respective living arrangements.

"I'll see you in the morning then." Lucy said and waved her friend goodbye. Levy nodded and waved back to her friend who was walking away from her towards the river that went by her house.

It was then that Levy's stomach decided to remind her that she hadn't eaten anything today and Levy blushed slightly since she wasn't exactly alone in the street and the growl hadn't exactly been very quiet. She decided to just hurry over to the next store or café to get something to eat as quick as possible, she felt like she was starving and she didn't really like that feeling.

She knew that there was a store not too far from where she was, so she tried to be as quick as possible, while looking down at the ground just in case her blush hadn't fully faded. Unfortunately this caused her to almost bump into more than a few people, thankfully she didn't actually bump into anyone head on.

It was then that fate decided to have it's way and Levy bumped face first into something hard, making her lose her balance and fall backwards. But her wrist was grabbed before she could land on the pavement and she opened her eyes to see just who she walked into.

As luck would have it, the person that the solid script mage had bumped into was none other than Gajeel.

"You really should look where you're goin' shrimp." Gajeel said as he pulled her up so she could stand properly. "Just might walk into somethin'."

"Or someone it seems." Levy added while rubbing her forehead. "Why didn't you move?"

"You'd have hit someone else if I had." Gajeel had a point there, she probably would have ended up walking into someone she didn't know and that would have just been embarrassing. Especially since she was walking rather fast since she was hungry.

"You were in quite the hurry tho." He began "Got any more fanboys I should know about?" He joked.

"No I was just-" Her stomach growled and answered for her "Yeah, that."

"I forgot to eat when I came to the guild." She finished what she was originally planning on saying "I was heading to the store to buy a sandwich or something."

"I'm about to go cook dinner and, you can, join me and Lily...if you want." Gajeel mentally slapped himself, he was trying to keep away from her and last time he checked, inviting her to dinner wasn't staying away. What was he getting himself into.

"I wouldn't want to impose…" Levy had to admit that she was surprised that he'd offered her to stay for dinner, maybe things would be easier than she thought.

"I'm askin' if you want too, shrimp." He probably should stop "You ain't imposin'."

"Thank you, Gajeel." Levy smiled that was then accompanied by another growl, making her blush again.

"Gihi, looks like someone else is thankful." The iron dragon slayer laughed and started walking towards his home with levy following him close by.

He had to make sure that she could keep up with him, so he walked a bit slower than usual, their height difference did give them different advantages, and Gajeel had a faster pace than her plus he took larger steps. But he did like having the shrimp there by him, even if they were just walking to his place, they weren't even talking, but it was alright.

Gajeel's home was at the edge of Magnolia, it was relatively small, but it had two floors so there was a good chance that it was bigger than it looked. Behind the front door was a small entryway so they could take off their shoes before going in. Levy was done sooner since she was wearing sandals and Gajeel was wearing boots, but she waited for him since she didn't want to be rude.

When they went further in, Levy noticed that the place wasn't much bigger on the inside either, to her left was a living room with a rather run down sofa, and to her right was the entryway to the kitchen, the stairs to the upper floor was in the living room and she guessed that the bedrooms and bathroom were there.

Levy followed him into the kitchen and sat down by the table while Gajeel went through his fridge to take out the ingredients for dinner. She looked around the small kitchen, it wasn't much and there were some iron bits here and there, but if made the place feel more like it was Gajeel's. She couldn't help but wonder if this was where he lived before the tenrou incident or if he had to find some place new.

"I hope you don't mind Lasagna." Gajeel said as he turned on the oven and went back to preparing the ingredients, honestly he was just trying to keep himself distracted. Something in the back of his mind was screaming at him to make a move, but he couldn't let himself do that, not when his season was just about to begin and who knows what could happen.

"Uhm yeah, Lasagna is fine." She finally answered, the whole situation was a little awkward but it could be worse so she wasn't complaining "Where's Lily?"

"Don't know, he sometimes just goes off on his own." He answered "He'll be here before dinner's ready." He wasn't sure how the exceed did it, but if he wasn't home while Gajeel was cooking, he'd show up when dinner was ready.

Gajeel kept preparing dinner in silence, eventually putting his hair up in a ponytail to keep it out of the way, he had also made Levy a piece of toast after her stomach growled again and it would take some time for the lasagna to be ready and he didn't really want the short mage to starve right then and there.

After some time, Gajeel could put the lasagna into the oven and he started taking out the plates and other utensils to set the table.

"Could you watch the lasagna?" Gajeel pointed at the oven and waited for Levy's answer, which was a nod. He then went upstairs to get a change of clothes, leaving Levy downstairs watching the oven intently. She usually caused disasters to happen when she was in the kitchen and even if she was just supposed to watch the lasagna for a bit, she still felt like something could go wrong.

She almost didn't notice when Gajeel came back, she looked up at him and saw him wearing a dark green tank top with some black pants, his hair was still up in a high ponytail and Levy had to make sure that she wasn't staring.

Thankfully Lily decided to show up at that moment so her attention was taken away from the dragon slayer. Lily flew into the kitchen and landed on the counter.

"Hello Levy, are you joining us for dinner tonight?" He asked the blue haired mage.

"Yeah, Gajeel invited me since I forgot to eat earlier." She answered.

"He did?" The exceed looked at Gajeel with a raised brow, he wasn't exactly expecting anything to happen with those two after the conversation from the night before, and definitely not this soon. But he was hoping that Gajeel would at least explain something to her if he hadn't already.

"Yeah, he's making lasagna." Levy announced when Gajeel didn't say anything.

As if on cue, Gajeel took the finished lasagna out of the oven and placed it in the middle of the table and the three ate in silence. Lily really wanted to leave the scene but if he'd try to move away from his plate, then Gajeel would glare at him, so he forced himself to stay.

"I found a book about dragon slayers at the library today.." Levy broke the silence, Gajeel was intrigued about what she could have found in that book of hers, books about that subject were rare and often completely wrong.

"It was pretty messed up so it was pretty useless." She then added "It did say that something happened every other year though."

Gajeel almost choked on his food, maybe that book wasn't as wrong as the many others, but he knew that she'd probably ask him about it and he wasn't going to explain it. Thankfully she got too busy trying to see if he was alright.

After levy had made sure that he wasn't dying or anything, she went back to her seat and started talking about books that she'd read, she had no idea if Gajeel even liked listening to her blabber on about books. She just couldn't stand the tension from the silence so she started talking about something she knew she could talk endlessly about.

He didn't really care about what she'd read if he had to be honest, but he liked seeing the fire in her eyes when she talked about it. It was obvious that this was her passion so he wasn't going to stop her, plus he liked the sound of her voice.

Pantherlily saw his chance and quietly flew out of the room before either of them could notice, since the silence had finally be broken and Gajeel seemed to be to busy listening to the shorter mage. Lily thought this to be a perfect time to leave those two alone again, hopefully this would help the iron dragon slayer come to terms with his feelings and actually explain what the book meant by something happening every other year.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as Lily hoped they would, instead Levy continued talking with the occasional remark from Gajeel. But a casual conversation was almost as good, those two really needed some time together and to just talk and almost everyone in the guild could agree with that.

"I really should get going." Levy said as she looked at the clock, it was getting rather late and she still needed to get things ready for tomorrow morning. Gajeel walked her to the door and waited for her to leave, though he was tempted to ask her to stay.

"Me and Lu are going on a mission tomorrow, so….I'll see you when I get back?" Levy almost didn't want to ask, but something was telling her to make sure that she would see him, she couldn't exactly explain it herself, but she knew that she should listen to it.

Gajeel nodded to answer her question, which caused her to smile before she left for the dorm. He stayed in the doorway until he couldn't see her any more, he closed the door and went straight to the living room and crashed on the sofa. Only then noticing that Lily had bailed earlier, which caused him to let out a groan, not just because Lily had left him alone with Levy, but also because it was the exceeds turn to do the dishes and Gajeel couldn't sense him anywhere in the house.

He begrudgingly want back to the kitchen to clean everything up, which he wasn't so keen on doing since the place smelled like her and lasagna, but he didn't mind the smell of lasagna much. Thanks to the season her scent seemed like it was much stronger and it was driving him crazy, it was really tempting to just leave the kitchen as it was and just go for a walk or something. But something was telling him that he'd just end up outside the dorm and he really didn't want that to happen, so he did the dishes too got it over with.

* * *

When Levy reached the dorm and got into her room, she made herself fall on the bed, she had some new found confidence for the plan of seducing him after that dinner. She had blathered on and on about her books yet he had never seemed bored or disinterested, so maybe this whole thing wasn't going to be as hard as she initially thought it was going to be.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **Please rate and review, I'd love to know what you think!**


	3. Everyone is in denial

Lucy looked at the clock hanging in the train station for the second time in five minutes, the train would be leaving in ten minutes and Levy hadn't shown up yet. She was admittedly getting worried about missing it, but she tried staying positive and calm while she waited for her blue haired friend.

"I'm so sorry!" Levy ran over to the celestial mage with a heavy bag on her back.

"It's alright, let's just go find a seat."

"What about tickets?" levy asked.

"I got them, now let's go." Lucy waved the two train tickets in the air.

The two hurried on the train and got a booth all for themselves. The train was relatively empty due to it being early and the girls were almost alone in the coach save for a couple of other people. This gave them an opportunity to talk a little about the plan while on their way to Hargeon.

"What gave you the idea for the outfits anyway?" Lucy finally asked the question that was almost plaguing her mind since the day before.

"It's kinda embarrassing but." Levy leaned in closer "At the library yesterday, I read a couple of self help books on seduction."

"That's kind of sad…" Lucy said with a smile.

"I know, but I had no idea what to do and it seemed like a good place to start." She explained her decision.

"Well it did help, so there's that." The blonde shrugged.

"True." Levy began "But I'm worried about what Cana will suggest we wear."

The solid script mage may have word short dresses and low collared shirts and such, but she never did it to get attention, only because she liked it and she looked good in it. She was allowed to feel good about herself, but it honestly made her rather nervous to know that she was actively trying to get some attention from the man that she liked.

"I'm sure she won't make us wear something we don't want too." Lucy said. "She's not evil."

They both laughed at that, the image of an evil Cana didn't really fit, the card mage was incredibly kind and caring despite her more vulgar attitude. If she agreed to help then that was what she was going to do, so she would never force them to do something they were clearly uncomfortable with, maybe just push them a little.

They talked for the remainder of the short train ride to Hargeon, both about the plan to get their boys and other things that piqued their interest. Levy also mentioned the useless book on Dragon Slayers she had found in the restricted section of the library, which reminded her that she probably should have told them that she picked the lock.

The book remained the topic of their conversation as they arrived at the Hargeon station, they tried to come up with some ideas as to what the author had meant when he wrote about the thing that happened every other year. Nothing they came up with sounded plausible, usually it just sounded too unlikely or just plain stupid.

"Now that I think about it." Levy scratched her chin "Gajeel did choke when I asked him about it."

"You asked Gajeel? When?"

Lucy stopped her short friend, she hadn't seen her much the day before, but she knew that the iron dragon slayer had spent most of the day at the guild.

"Last night, he invited me over for dinner." Levy answered.

"Maybe you never needed any help at all to get his attention then." The blonde winked, she was happy that at least it would be a bit easier for her friend.

"I ran into him and my stomach growled really loudly!" Levy waved her hands frantically in front of her. "He probably just felt sorry for me..."

"We'll never know Lev, we'll never know." Lucy smiled at her friend, trying to at least give her some hope. "What did you guys have anyway?"

"He cooked some Lasagna." Levy answered, somewhat defeated.

"He cooked?" She had to admit that she never expected Gajeel of all people to cook.

"Yeah, he's very good." Levy admitted "But enough about this, it's time you tell me about Natsu." She poked her taller friend in a teasing manner.

"It's not like I can say much that you don't already know…" She began "I woke up this morning and he was there along with Happy, sleeping soundly as ever."

"Why do I feel like you're not telling me everything?" Levy asked.

"I am telling you everything…."

"Are you?" The solid script mage asked again.

"Yes.." Lucy was starting to break, something a little different than usual had happened that morning and somehow Levy seemed to notice that she wasn't telling her about it. "Oh fine, something happened." And the blonde was defeated.

"Like what?" The blue haired mage asked excitedly.

"Natsu was just a little more grabby than usual." She answered "It was really hard getting him to let me out of bed."

"I guess it's going to be easier than we expected for the both of us then." Levy laughed, she knew Natsu could be an goofball, but he knew what he was doing most of the time, so not letting her go was likely to have been planned.

Lucy laughed at that, Levy had a point and they were both getting more confident about the whole thing, which was going to make it easier. Now all they had to do was get to the boys.

"We probably should get a move on…" Lucy said "We've been standing in the station for a while now."

"Wait, what?" Levy finally noticed her surroundings, and lo and behold, they were still in the train station "I hadn't noticed." She laughed.

With that they started making their way over to the library, still somewhat teasing each other on the way. Though they knew that they could joke about it for the moment, it would be a different story when they got back and would actually be doing things instead of just talking about them.

But now they'd have some time for themselves to just think, and relax while earning some extra jewels while at it. It wasn't a bad deal, although the main question was how long they'd take with the mission. They had no idea how many grimoires they'd be asked to translate, nor how old they were, and that all really mattered with the translation process.

After a bit of a walk through the seaside town, the girls arrived at the town's public library. It was a building of a decent size and gothic architecture, it had a couple of flights of stairs before they arrived at the big wooden doors that were thankfully open despite the cool autumn air that the wind brought in.

"Let's go find someone we can talk to." Levy suggested and pointed inside.

Lucy nodded and followed her through the large doors. It didn't take them long to find someone seeing as the librarian was sitting at her desk that was almost right by the entry way. They talked to her about the mission and she lead them to the chief librarian's office.

"You must be the Fairy Tail mages." The chief librarian greeted them. "I'm Chief Librarian Biblio, pleasure to meet you." He was an old man with an obvious toupee, but he had a very warm and welcoming smile that made you instantly trust him.

"I'm Lucy."

"And I'm Levy, pleasure to meet you too."

They exchanged some more pleasantries before finally getting to business, the library had been given the grimoires as a gift from some travelers who couldn't use them, but seeing as they were from the far east and rather old, the library couldn't translate them on it's own. Biblio had known that Fairy Tail had some incredibly smart mages and since it was in Magnolia, it was the closest guild.

"Let me show you where you'll be working." Biblio said and and escorted the girls to another room in the large building. He stopped by a medium sized door, it was bigger than the door at his office, but still nowhere near the size front door of course.

When he opened the door to reveal the room they'd be working in, the two mages couldn't help but gawk, it wasn't exactly a big or anything like that, it had a nice big desk and some comfy looking chairs. What did make the girls gawk though was the amount of books that were in the room, there were a few piles on the floor and then some stacks on the desk itself.

"Are those all grimoires?" Lucy asked nervously.

"Yes, and I need you to translate all of them." He cheerily said "Now good luck you two, we're counting on you."

And with that he was gone, leaving the two alone with the grimoires they needed to translate. Thankfully they weren't that thick so it didn't look as bad as they first thought.

"Guess that explains the reward…" Levy half heartedly joked.

Lucy just sighed and started going inside with Levy following her closely. They looked around the room some more, noticing that there were some empty journals in another pile which they'd need to write the translations down in. Other than that, all the other piles and stacks were just grimoires and the sooner they began, the better.

"Let's start with the ones on the desk, alright?" Lucy suggested.

"Alright, but we probably should start by making some space for when we're done with them." Levy said, there wasn't much space to work in the room, so they'd need to clean up if they wanted to have some sort of a system.

Lucy agreed and they got to work, moving all the grimoires that weren't on the desk to one side of the room, while they left the pile of empty journals was turned into neat stacks. They ended up having to remove some of the grimoires off of the desk so they could use it.

"All set." Levy said while cleaning some of dust off of her dress. "We can really start now."

They somehow got more determined after the clean up, they couldn't exactly explain it but it didn't matter. Now they could sit down and start translating their first grimoires, and with them both donning gale force reading glasses, they would be done in no time.

* * *

Back in Magnolia, Gajeel was breathing a little easier, he was silently hoping that the shrimp would be gone for at least a month, since if she was there during his season, things would be much harder for him. But something was screaming at him to go find out where she was headed to to be near her, but he couldn't do that because that would just be creepy.

"You know you can't avoid this forever." Lily interrupted his train of thought.

"Shut it." They've had this conversation enough times already and he wasn't going to have it again.

"I'm just saying that it would be best to tell her." The Exceed said for the umpteenth time that day.

"Well she ain't here so I can't anyway." Gajeel defended.

"Maybe you should tell her when she get's back then?"

"We don't know when that'll be so who knows." Gajeel answered, he promised himself that he wouldn't have this conversation again, but here he was, having this conversation again.

"You're impossible." Lily shook his head and sighed, his dragon slayer friend was stubborn as a mule and it would really take something special to budge him.

"I try, let's just go to the guild." He made his way to the front door and waited for the cat there.

"What if she'll come back in the middle of it all." Lily began "You've got less than a week."

"You think I didn't know that." It was a rhetorical question "Hopefully she won't show up in a month then."

The iron dragon slayer opened the door then and left, leaving the exceed behind, he had had more than enough of that conversation and how persistent Pantherlily could get. He knew that he was probably right about telling her, but he didn't want to scare her away and he didn't deserve her anyway, what was the point in telling her.

All he had to do now was hope that Levy would be away on her mission for longer than a month, then his season would be over and everything would be back to normal and he wouldn't have to worry whenever she was around. So as long as she didn't show up in a week, everything would be just fine.

* * *

"At this rate, we'll be back in magnolia in a week!" Levy exclaimed.

"Good thing we remembered the dictionary…" Lucy laughed.

Levy laughed at that, somehow they'd completely forgotten to bring a dictionary to help them with the translation, thankfully they'd figured it out and got one from the library, which sped up the process by a lot. Now they were on a good roll and done translating a few grimoires, they still had majority left but it was still something.

They kept going at a steady pace until their stomachs decided to let them know that it was dinner time. The two mages quickly cleaned up after the day and let the chief librarian know that they would be heading out to get something to eat and find a place to stay for a while. He ended up giving them a spare key to the library so they could still get back inside if they'd return after closing time.

But they could worry about that later, for now they needed to find somewhere to eat. Hargeon had a few places they could go to, but one place out shined the others, and they both ended up thinking about it first.

"So 8-Island?" Lucy said what was on both of their minds, Levy quickly agreed and they headed off to the restaurant.

Thankfully the restaurant wasn't all that far away so they didn't have to wait as long for their stomachs to be filled with some magic prepared food. They entered the restaurant, it was a little busy, but it was normal seeing as it was dinner time after all.

They were seated quickly and got a nice window booth, surprisingly enough, but it gave them a sense of privacy which was very nice. This did give them a chance to talk about something other than possible translations of ancient far eastern words.

So while they waited for their dinner to arrive, they started up a conversation about whatever that came in mind. It of course ended up being about books, but with the occasional mention of the dragon slayers.

"You think Dragons imprinted?" Levy asked absentmindedly.

Lucy just stared at her "Have you been reading those books again?" She asked.

"It was for research!" The solid script mage tried defending herself.

"On what? Bad literature?"

"Bad writing and characters actually." Levy answered "But that's besides the point. Do you think they did it?"

"It's not like imprinting gives you much of a choice, so I sure hope not." Lucy answered, thinking about all the bad things that imprinting entailed.

"True, but hypothetically, do you think that Dragon Slayers would too due to the nature of their magic?"

"Levy, please stop." Lucy pleaded, she really didn't want to think about Natsu, Wendy or anyone really, imprinting on anyone, it would be a disaster.

"Sorry." She apologized, she forgot how her mouth could sometimes just go off and she'd end up saying something stupid.

"What even made you think of that?" Lucy couldn't help but ask.

"I guess the book I found made me start thinking." Levy scratched her head and laughed awkwardly. "I just want to know more."

"I know what you mean." The blonde said.

The food arrived soon after and they filled their empty stomachs. It didn't really take them very long to finish their food, which ended up giving Lucy the hiccups and Levy laughing every time she hicked. Eventually the celestial mage started laughing too, which just made the hiccups funnier for the both of them.

After they finally calmed down, they paid the bill and decided to say hello to Yajima, just to see how he was doing. Of course he was busy so they couldn't really talk much, just exchange a few hellos and then the girls were off to find some place to stay.

Seeing as Hargeon was a port town and often got a lot of visitors from other places, it had quite the selection of inns to choose from. Some of the inns were rather fancy so the girls just swerved away from those.

"I think it would be best if we'd try to get one close to the library." Lucy suggested.

"I agree, let's just hope we find a cheap one." Levy sighed.

Lucy agreed and they set out to find a cheap inn that was near the library. It took them a while to find a cheap one, but thankfully they did and it looked cozy and nice, they even served breakfast. On the outside it looked like a simple two story wooden house with a balcony, it had light coming from a couple of the upstairs windows and all of the downstairs ones.

They went inside and talked to the innkeeper, Nana, who was an elderly lady who was incredibly energetic despite her age. She quickly set the girls up for a room with two beds and let them know when breakfast would be served.

The room that they got was small but nice, it had two doors on each end, one of which was the bathroom while the other was the bedroom. Outside those doors was a small living area with a sofa and a couple of shelves with some books here and there.

They decided to check on the bedroom to see what it was like and it wasn't anything that they didn't expect, it had two beds with blue covers and a bedside table with a lamp on each side, simple but homey. It would be perfect for their short stay so they had nothing to complain about.

The two mages decided to head to bed in a little bit and wake up early so they could spend the day working on the translations and not be exhausted while at it. They would have to go and get something to eat while they were there, but that was a problem for another time.

It took them about an hour or so to completely come up with a plan for the translations and get ready for sleep. So they got into their respective beds and wished each other goodnight and drifted off to sleep, though both of them had a hard time doing that as they had someone stuck on their minds.

* * *

Gajeel had somehow ended up getting involved in the latest guild brawl and so, was one of the ones who unfortunately suffered Erza's wrath. Thankfully seeing as he wasn't one of those who started it, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. But after it had happened, he had been slightly thankful for it.

"Something's on your mind?" It was more of a statement from the black exceed rather than a question.

"I think Salamander's season's startin' too." The iron dragon slayer said with a hint of worry. The two of them having their seasons at the same time would not bode well.

"How can you tell?" Pantherlily asked.

"His scent's different." He answered "But I'm not sure."

"You think Wendy might be able to tell?" The exceed asked, having a third Dragon Slayer around wasn't so bad during these kind of times.

"Possibly." Gajeel sat back down, one dragon slayer on their season could be annoying, but two who didn't exactly get along could spell disaster. It would all depend on both of their willpower and determination to keep themselves in check. "Let's just hope I'm wrong."

If he was right, he would need to talk to Natsu and he wasn't much of a fan of doing it. He preferred keeping his distance from the pink haired mage but seeing as things could get ugly due to the nature of their magic which gave them the properties of a dragon. Frankly, Gajeel didn't want that to happen, despite how much he didn't like the fire dragon slayer.

"What if you are right? What then?" Lily asked.

"The two of us becoming more aggressive, and especially towards each other." Gajeel simply stated.

"That would be bad." The cat said. "Is there anyway to avoid it?"

"Staying away from each other and keeping our cool, now stop asking." The studded mage was getting really annoyed at all the question he was getting asked, he didn't like talking about this.

"I apologize." Lily said. "Since I live with you, I just thought it would be good to know these things."

Gajeel huffed, his cat had a point and it would be good to know that he wasn't alone in trying to keep himself calm. But he wasn't going to talk about it in the guild, not when there was someone who could possibly hear their conversation.

"I've already told you the most of it, but I'll explain the rest later, happy?" He asked, obviously annoyed.

"Very much so." Lily had a subtle smile of victory, he had noticed that Gajeel wasn't telling him everything, and he wanted to know exactly what would and could happen during that month. Not only because he lived with the dragon slayer, but because he was his friend.

Not long after that the two of them left the guild hall and headed back to their small home. It was very dark and the skies were filled with stars and the moon shined brightly, the street lamps were buzzing with magic as they lit the road.

When they both got inside and after Gajeel took his shower, it was time for Lily to get his better explanation of what the Dragon slayers seasons really entailed. He had a lot of question and he knew that he would surely annoy the iron dragon slayer to no end but after not telling him everything, then he deserved to bug him a little bit.

Gajeel's explanation went on for a while as some of it was just him repeating what he had already told the exceed, but he had to for the sake of context. But he knew that Lily was listening to every word he said, and even if he'd never admit it out loud, it was comforting knowing that someone had his back during the most annoying time for dragon slayers.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **This chapter is a little bit shorter as there's not much happening, but next chapter things will be starting up a bit more.**

 **Please rate and review!**


	4. Affections Confirmed

The week went smoothly for everyone, the girls translated each grimoire as well as they could, even going over the first ones again just to be sure that they got things right. With every finished journal, they had a library official go over them just see if everything seemed to sound alright, thankfully it did so they didn't really need to rewrite anything. Everything went smoothly on their end and after they had finished everything and handed it to chief librarian Biblio, they got their reward and it would be time to pack everything up at the inn. Little by little, the last day passed and by noon, it was time to catch the train back to Magnolia and so, time for Cana to take them shopping for some new items to help them with their little seduction plot.

On the other hand, Gajeel had been taking everything very easy, keeping an eye on the fire dragon slayer every now and then just to see if his suspicion was right. He'd have to talk to Wendy soon since he'd spent the week pretty much doing nothing and enjoying the lack of worry that came with the shrimp that plagued his mind. Now that a week had passed and his season would be starting at full swing, things would be more difficult but he was planning on just staying at home for the majority of it, but with the solid script mage not there, things would be a little bit easier for him.

The doors to the guild halls opened and a familiar scent filled Gajeel's nose, the scent of old paper and ink, as much as he loved that scent, right now it wasn't exactly what he wanted. He tried focusing on the other scent that came with it, the one of bunny girl, but he was having an incredibly hard time trying. He was thankful for the sudden burst of alcohol and rain that joined the other mix and pulled it back out, at least he could bail now without it seeming suspicious to anyone. But the iron dragon slayer couldn't help but notice the change in Natsu's behaviour, when the girls entered, he was obviously relieved and when she left soon after, he seemed agitated, which only helped further his belief that it was his season too.

* * *

"Couldn't we have at least waited a little bit." Levy said as she was being dragged through the streets of Magnolia by Cana.

"Nope." The card mage began "We had to wait a week for you guys, so we're doing this now."

Juvia nodded with a sympathetic look, though both Lucy and Levy knew that she was just as excited about this as Cana was, she just wasn't as open about it. So all they could do now was resign themselves to their fates and let them have a little bit of fun.

"We'll start with lingerie." Cana said, winking at her victims, who just looked at each other and gulped.

When they arrived at the lingerie store, Lucy actually started getting a little excited, she was no stranger to looking sexy, but she had never had some properly sexy lingerie before. Levy on the other hand was a little nervous, all of the models in the pictures had breasts that she could only dream of and so did the mannequins, maybe this wasn't going to end well for her.

"Are you sure we can find something for me here?" The solid script mage asked nervously.

"Relax, Levy, they have every size." Cana laughed "Plus, we'll be focusing on something else than your chest." She slapped Levy's butt to emphasize her point, all it really did was make the short mage yelp in surprise.

"We will start with Lucy." Juvia then said while grabbing the aforementioned blonde's shoulders.

"Alright, let's see if we can find some good looking flame designs." The card mage started going through the store, to see if she could find what she was looking for. It did take her longer than she hoped, most of the designs were absolutely horrid and she couldn't make her friend wear something like that, she wasn't that mean. She was thankful that she did find a decent design on some night lingerie which would be absolutely perfect for what she had planned.

"I found something perfect." She showed Lucy the night lingerie "Since natsu tends to sleep in your bed with you, this will be perfect."

She pushed her blonde friend into the changing room with the night lingerie, she was really excited to see her wear the ensemble, Cana was sure that it would suit the blonde very well, and when she came out of the changing room, a slight blush tinting her cheeks, she proved herself right.

"How do I look?" Lucy couldn't help but ask. The lingerie consisted of two pieces, the top that barely covered her breasts, there was some sheer fabric that cascaded down from the chest area and split at the front, down the middle. The panties that went with it was a string, both pieces were red in colour, but the sheer had some flame patterns at the bottom of it.

"You look great!" Cana exclaimed, and both blue haired mages agreed with her.

"But we've just begun, sweetie." The card mage pulled up more lingerie "So get back in there." She pushed Lucy back inside the changing room and waited for her to change into the other items she had given her. Some were a hit, some a miss, but for Lucy, they ended with a few items, including the night lingerie.

"Now it's your turn Levy." Juvia looked at the shorter mage, who had almost forgotten that they would do the same to her as they did to Lucy.

"So what does Juvia suggest?" Cana asked her partner.

"Black of course, with some grays." The water mage answered "With maybe a bit of blues and orange." She then added.

"I agree." The card mage said before she started going through the store yet again to see what she could find.

"What size bra you wear?" She called over the store.

"Me? 32B." Levy hesitantly answered.

"Nice, smaller sizes can have really cute designs." Cana said. "But you have one fine booty, so we can go all out in the panty department."

A little while later, The dark haired girl came back with a lot of lingerie for Levy to try on. The bra's looked alright, some were push ups, some just had nice designs and most of them were black. The panties though were a bit different, it was obvious that they were made to emphasize the butt.

"Are these even considered clothes?" Levy asked as she held up a pair of panties that instead of a back, had multiple strings coming from the center string.

"Yes, now go change." Cana answered quickly and pushed the short mage inside the changing room and waited for her to come out.

After Levy had tried on some of the items that the card mage had picked out and they found which ones looked the best on her, it was time for the to pay. Neither of them had too many things so thankfully they didn't spend all of their jewels right then and there, but Cana had said that they'd only start here, so they had no idea how much they'd have left after she was done with them.

The four girls spent the rest of the day finding clothes for Lucy and Levy to wear, some were more revealing than their usual outfits while others looked similar to what they wore most of the time already. Juvia was more help in this department since she was a frequent shopper in some of the stores and so got a bit of a discount.

"Now we only have one thing left." Cana said, earning a groan from her victims.

"What more is there?" Lucy asked.

"Dinner." The card mage began "On me."

A sigh of relief from the two girls with a soft giggle from Juvia, too much shopping could drain a lot of energy, and jewels, so free dinner was always welcome after a day like that. Though they all knew Cana so it probably would be a place with an open bar so she could show everyone there what she got.

Surprisingly enough, Cana asked Juvia to pick a place for them to go to, so they avoided the drunken mess that would have come with the card mage's pick. Juvia led them through the streets of Magnolia until they arrived at the restaurant that the water mage had chosen.

It was a quaint place, it had a few tables outside despite the cool autumn air, but it had a few heater lacrimas so it could be a very cozy place to be. The inside of the restaurant was rustic and welcoming, the lighting was warm and there was a fireplace at the far end, it wasn't being used right now but they could imagine seeing it lit in mid winter when things would get colder. It wasn't very busy either which only added to the coziness of it all, it also helped them get seated very quickly.

"How did you even find this place?" Cana asked Juvia.

"Juvia knows the owner." She answered. "He was Juvia's and Gajeel's friend."

The last bit got Levy's attention, Gajeel wasn't exactly the kind of person to have a lot of friends so it made her curious about who the owner was. "How do you know the owner?" She asked.

"He was a member of..." Juvia hesitated, not sure if she should continue, but she did anyway "..of Phantom Lord."

The water mage looked at the shorter mage with a somewhat apologetic look, no one really talked about what happened during the Phantom war, especially not around Levy, though no one really did it anyway. Even if it had happened quite some time ago, Juvia couldn't help but feel a little guilty for what had happened to team shadow gear, even if she had nothing to do with it.

"You don't need to feel sorry about that." Levy could easily read her fellow blue haired mage expression. "It happened in the past, besides, you didn't do anything." She tried her best to reassure her.

"Enough with the gloomy mood." Cana interrupted "Let's get something to eat!"

That interruption managed to stop all further mentions of the subject for the time being and they ordered their food and while they waited they talked about pretty much anything that came to mind. Though Cana was eager to keep the subject on the Dragon Slayers, she really did enjoy seeing the two younger mages so flustered when it came to the boys and couldn't help but to tease them a little.

"So do you think Gajeel has piercings on his dick?" The card mage asked bluntly, earning a slight blush from the three other girls. "Oh come on, you've probably thought about it too." She tried defending herself.

"Honestly I never wanted to think about his dick." Lucy said "Ever."

"Lucy's out, but what about you Levy?" She pressed the short mage for an answer.

"I-I-I-I-I can't say th-that I have thought about that." Levy stuttered while blushing furiously, her mind being attacked by multiple images of possible piercings.

"Are you suuuuuure?" She pressed harder.

"Maybealittle." The short mage muttered while looking down, trying to hide her face the best she could.

"Atta girl." Cana laughed. "Now does Juvia know?"

"Juvia does not." She said bluntly, she couldn't tell them what she knew, Gajeel was her friend and it was his business, and his junk and she didn't exactly enjoy conversing about that.

"Alright then, you guys think Natsu's packing something good down there?" The card mage asked.

"Cana!" Lucy yelled "Please stop talking about dicks!" She pleaded and the other two agreed with her.

"You guys are no fun." Cana said.

"No, we just don't want to talk about schlongs in public." Levy said with a moment of silence following her statement.

Then the other three girls burst out laughing, none of them able to control themselves as their laughter filled the small restaurant. Levy was confused but couldn't help but laugh along with them due to how contagious it was.

"Why are you laughing?" Levy managed to get out between laughs.

"Schlong, Lev? Really?" Lucy answered, trying to contain her laughter.

"What? It's a word!" The shorter mage tried defending herself.

"A fucking hilarious one at that." Cana added.

"Juvia agrees."

It took them all a while to calm back down, it was odd how a single word could send them all into a fit of laughter, though in their defense it was a funny word. After they had managed to calm down, the conversation did not go back to being about dicks, instead it went on about funny words, and that talk lasted for a good while until they left the restaurant.

When they got back outside, it was a little colder and much darker, indicating that they had been in there for quite sometime. The cold air made most of them shiver a little at first, Levy was the first to get used to it, Lucy kept shivering for a while after they started walking, which earned a tight hug from the dark haired mage.

"I'm gonna walk blondie here home." Cana said while still hugging Lucy. "See ya." They all exchanged their goodbyes and the two blue haired mages were left alone.

Levy and Juvia started making their way home to Fairy hills, both holding a few bags of clothing and lingerie. For a good while they walked in silence, but it was a comfortable silence so neither really tried breaking the silence. But Levy knew that this would be a good as time as any to ask Juvia about Gajeel.

"Is it true?" The solid script mage began "Does Gajeel really like me?"

Juvia was taken by surprise, she hadn't expected Levy to doubt it since the iron dragon slayer wasn't exactly subtle. "Yes, Gajeel likes you." She answered.

"But why do you doubt?" She asked, she was incredibly curious.

"I don't know." Levy began "I just feel like I'd only ever be a burden, I'm not strong like everyone else."

"But Levy is incredibly smart, smarter than anyone." The water mage tried reassuring her. "Plus, Gajeel likes you either way."

"But I'd just worry him, wouldn't I?"

"And he'd come save you like he has done before." Juvia stated "And Juvia thinks that Gajeel likes that." She winked.

"I guess." Levy still wasn't sure.

"Gajeel thinks that he doesn't deserve you." The water mage said.

"What?" The shorter mage began "Why does he think that?!" Throwing her hands up into the air for emphasis.

"Juvia thinks that he hasn't forgiven himself for what he did to you." She began "And that it's become harder for him to try because he likes you."

"I never thought that he felt so guilty about it." Levy said "I always wanted to forget it ever happened, but I knew that I never would." She looked at the ground as they walked, thinking about the events that took place that day "I don't want him to feel that way."

"Then Juvia thinks that Levy should talk to Gajeel, show him that he can forgive himself." She said.

"That sounds like a manic pixie dream girl...just, a tall and intimidating dragon slayer with a lot of piercings." Levy couldn't help but laugh at the image that popped in her head.

"Let Juvia rephrase then." She began "Be there for him when he needs it."

"I feel like we're talking about a puppy." The solid script mage kept laughing. "A puppy with a pet cat."

Juvia couldn't help but laugh at that image either "Gajeel is a puppy, a big grumpy puppy." They both then tried imitating his signature scowl, which just made them laugh even more.

* * *

"Be sure to wear the night lingerie." Cana called to Lucy as she went up the stairs to her apartment, she only bid the dark haired mage goodbye and entered her apartment with all her bags.

Lucy leaned against her door and closed her eyes, it had been a long day and she was glad that it was over, so she let out a long sigh and opened her eyes, planning on taking a bath. But when she opened her eyes, she was met with a pair of onyx eyes and a fringe of pink.

"HOLY FUCK." Lucy screamed in surprise "Natsu!"

"You don't need to scream that loud." Natsu said while holding his aching ears.

"You startled me, of course I'm gonna scream!" Lucy yelled some more. "Why were you even in my face?!

"I dunno, just wanted to be sure you were safe I guess." He scratched the back of his head.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

Natsu shrugged, he honestly had no idea why he had such a strong urge to just see if the blonde was alright. He knew that she definitely wasn't weak and could handle herself in most situations, it was just that something was telling him to be with her. He felt like Igneel had mentioned something about this before but he couldn't remember for the life of him.

Lucy sighed again, gently pushing the pink haired boy away so she could move away from the door and actually go inside. She took off her shoes and carried her bags to the bedroom and placed them by the bed.

"Hey Luce, what's the in the bags?" Natsu asked and tried to take a peek inside one of them, but he was met with a Lucy kick that prevented him to get a proper look.

"It's nothing!" She had panicked when she saw him pulling the bag open and instinctively kicked him without thinking. "It's just clothes!"

"Well if it's just clothes then why'd ya kick me!" He rubbed his head where she had kicked him.

"Because I...I….I don't know, sorry" She apologized. "I'm gonna go take a bath, alright." She waited for an answer and got a nod, with that she took her pajamas out of the dresser and headed for the bathroom.

She locked the bathroom door and sighed yet again, her back was against the door and she covered her face, trying to hide the blush that was forming. She had freaked out about the possibility of Natsu finding the night lingerie with the little flame patterns because he would be sure to ask some questions and she had no idea how to answer them without ending up telling the truth. And who knows how he would have reacted to the fact that she was going to try and seduce him, they were friends, best friends even, and as much as she liked him, she was scared of messing something up.

While Lucy drew her bath, she kept thinking about the dragon slayer on the other side of the door, only then noticing that she hadn't seen Happy, not that she was paying much attention to her surroundings. She still found it a little odd that the blue cat hadn't been there, maybe he was with Charle or something, who knew.

On the other side of the door, Natsu was lying on the floor in the middle of the room, thinking about the blonde mage that was currently taking a bath. He did think about her a lot, but starting around a week ago, he was thinking about her more than usual and his dreams were getting hotter by the day. He was hoping that it wouldn't happen while he was sleeping in her bed and her wake up to it because they were friends, and he didn't want anything to happen to make her not want to be with him.

Natsu then heard a familiar flap of wings and the scent of fish enter the room, it was then that he remembered that he had left Happy back at their place.

"Natsuuu, how could you" The exceed almost cried.

"Happy! I'm so sorry!" The dragon slayer embraced the blue cat, how could he have forgotten something so important, he wondered.

"You left me to go to Lucy's." He stated rather than asked, then snickered a little.

"Why are you laughing?" Natsu asked.

"You liiiike her~" Happy teased.

"She's just a close friend." He tried defending himself. "And she was gone for a week, of course I'm gonna check on her."

"Whatever you say~" Happy flew up in the air, still somewhat teasing the pink haired boy.

Lucy had heard the exchange between the two of them, and was currently hiding her face under the water, at least now she knew for real that her feelings were reciprocated. She had had some doubts about it all, but now she felt like she had some added confidence, she was so going to make this happen.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **Please** **rate and review**


	5. Instincts

The clouds were thick and gray that morning, as if it was just about to rain the next second. The air was cold and most people were wearing thick sweaters or jackets to keep themselves warm. But when Lucy woke up, she felt as if she was in a steam room, she was drenched in sweat despite having kicked the covers off of her sometime during the night. She moved around, trying to get away from the heat, but she was pulled back against something hard and very hot, the arms around her middle were determined to keep her where she was.

"Natsu." She tried moving again to no avail "Natsu." She kept trying.

Natsu only groaned in response and nuzzled his face into her neck and held her close.

"Natsu, you're hot!" She tried moving again.

"Hm?" Finally a response out of the half asleep dragon slayer.

"Natsu, you're burning me." She exaggerated a little, but it certainly felt that if she wouldn't move soon, he'd start burning her back.

"What?" Natsu asked groggily.

"Natsu, let go." Finally he let her go and she welcomed the cool air that was further away from him. That's when she noticed that Happy had moved to a chair to sleep on, probably due to the amount of heat that the dragon slayer was distributing.

Natsu watched through half lidded eyes as Lucy made her way over to the bathroom, after she locked the door he looked over at Happy, who was still sleeping soundly. It was then that he noticed that the covers had been kicked off sometime during the night and he remembered what Lucy had said earlier, that he was hot and burning her. He knew that his body heat was higher than normal because of the nature of his magic, but it usually didn't bother anyone or burn for that matter.

When he moved to sit up he noticed that his underwear was tighter than normal and that he was in some need of a very cold shower. He really hoped that the celestial mage hadn't noticed that and just focused on the added body heat because he really didn't want to know what her reaction could be if she realized. So he quickly put on his thankfully baggy pants, and shirt, grabbed the blue cat and jumped out the window, he really didn't want to leave, honestly he just wanted to cuddle some more, but he had some matters to attend to.

When Lucy walked out of the bathroom she noticed that the pink haired mage was gone, she looked around a little before she was sure that he wasn't hiding or anything. The blonde went for her bag of lingerie and looked through it before she found a pink pair that she thought looked nice, even if she wasn't planning on taking her clothes off so soon, she could still feel good about herself. Besides, with the rowdiness that accompanied the guild, who knows what could happen, it wasn't as if she had never accidentally flashed someone, mainly Natsu, and was accidentally flashed by someone else, mainly Gray. So if she would accidentally flash the pink haired dragon slayer this time, at least she'd be prepared.

* * *

As morning became noon, the clouds had grown heavier and it began to rain, there were many different coloured umbrellas donning the streets of Magnolia, and those who forgot them ran to try to avoid the rain as best they could. The normally sunny Magnolia was now wet and gray, but in no way gloomy, the different coloured leaves that had fallen from the trees were decorating the streets and most people sat inside drinking something hot.

While many were already out and about, Levy was just waking up from a restless sleep, she had dreamt about something, but couldn't quite recall, so she just pushed it aside and started groggily preparing for the day. She eyes the bags from the day before with all her new clothing items and wondered if she should wear some of it.

"It's now or never." She shrugged and looked through the bags, trying to find something she could wear for the day. She ended up deciding on a dark pink, somewhat reddish, backless halter top dress, it was one of the items that she had picked out for herself and she really liked it, and it wasn't so different from her usual dresses that just barely went passed her butt, so it wasn't much of a change.

Since it was backless she decided not to wear a bra, not that it really mattered much, so she decided just to wear a pair of her older underwear, something she was more comfortable in, but she was going to work her way up to the sexier lingerie, it would just take a little time.

She put on a pink headband with small red polkadots to hold back her blue locks, she looked herself over in the mirror and nodded in approval, she was going to talk to Gajeel today and she would not fail or embarrass herself. She took her umbrella before going out, and she made her way down the hill and to the guild hall which was bustling as usual when she entered.

Leaving her umbrella in the umbrella stand by the door, she went to the bar and sat down, thinking of a way to start the conversation. As much as she wanted to talk to him about the guild he apparently carried from the things that happened during Phantom, she knew that she couldn't just start there. Ironically, she wasn't good with words and had no idea how to begin a conversation with him, it had seemed easy during the time on Tenrou island, but then again, she had gotten rather annoyed with him and they could have died.

"Something on your mind Levy?" Mirajane interrupted her train of thought.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I guess." The shorter mage answered.

"You guess?" Mirajane asked "Does it have something to do with a certain iron dragon slayer?"

Levy just stared at the older woman, it was as if she could read minds sometimes.

"It does, yeah." She sighed "I want to talk to him, but for some reason I have no idea how to start."

"Just say hi." Mirajane chuckled "You can't plan a conversation." She moved to the other side of the bar stand and grabbed the shorter mage by the shoulders, effectively pulling her up.

"Mira?" The blue haired mage asked nervously.

"You just have to dive right in." She started pushing her towards the corner where the aforementioned dragon slayer was sitting. "And whatever you do." She leaned in close "Don't think about his schlong." Mirajane then pushed the slightly blushing mage forward, news certainly did travel fast in Fairy Tail.

Gajeel pretended not to notice the object of his desires coming closer to where he was, but the closer she got, the harder it was to ignore and he couldn't help but look at her when she sat in front of him.

"Hey." She began "Nice weather, we're having?"

"Guess small talk isn't one of your strong suits, shrimp?." He grinned at the short mage's attempt at beginning a conversation.

"Not really." She sighed. "But we haven't really talked much since Tenrou, so, I wanted to say hi." She wasn't wrong, but it wasn't why she was there.

"Hi." Gajeel said "Done now?"

"No need to be rude about it." Levy huffed, she had forgotten how frustrating the taller mage could be sometimes.

"Not tryin' to be." He stated.

"You're a pretty good cook." She tried another approach.

"Damn right I am." He said proudly.

"How come?" She inquired.

"Just picked it up here and there." He answered, he liked talking to her, but at the moment he wanted to run away because his instincts were screaming at him to just, hold her, and that was something he couldn't just do randomly.

"You need to teach me sometime." It just came out of her mouth and she didn't exactly notice what she had just said until it was too late, but it would be a good reason for her to hang out with him.

"Sure." He answered without thinking, only figuring out that he had just agreed to teach her how to cook, which would most likely happen in his kitchen and she would be there, in his home, and her scent would start filling the place.

"Wait, really?" Levy had to confirm it.

"Yeah, why not." It was too late for him to back out anyway so he was going to commit.

"Thank you!" She began "I'm a terrible cook, so really, thank you."

"Can't be that bad?" Gajeel raised a brow.

"I set spaghetti on fire once." She simply stated, she had done more and could probably burn water if it came to it, but the flaming spaghetti was always one of her favourite stories to tell.

"...How even?" A groan followed his statement.

"Sorry in advance." She apologized, she was starting to fear that she would end up setting his kitchen on fire and neither of them could just eat the flames away like a certain pink haired dragon slayer.

A drawn out silence followed, neither of them knew what to say and it was rather awkward, though despite the awkwardness it wasn't exactly uncomfortable. Gajeel simply enjoyed having her this close, while Levy enjoyed his company since her other boys weren't there. But even if it wasn't uncomfortable, it was still awkward and so Levy was starting to want out of the situation, but she had no idea what she could do to break the silence.

"I should go." She quickly said while standing up.

"Wait." Gajeel spoke without thinking again, he didn't want her to leave but now things were going to get even more awkward for him.

"What?" She looked at him in disbelief.

"Stay." Words were just flying out of his mouth now and he was mentally hitting himself.

"Ok." She answered, but instead of sitting back in her seat in front of him, she decided to sit next to him, which made him tense up a little bit.

Her sweet scent was about to drive him crazy at this point and he had no one to blame but himself, so all he had to do was endure it, which was slowly proving to be easier said than done. But he was Gajeel motherfucking Redfox and he could do this, hopefully.

"Where's Pantherlily?" Levy had noticed that absence of the black exceed.

"Dunno." He shrugged "He sometimes just goes off."

"Oh?" She did sometimes forget that Lily was older than the other two exceeds "Wonder what he's up too."

"Well I ain't askin' him." Gajeel stated.

"Maybe I will do it then." She suggested.

"And what if he doesn't tell ya?" He mused, neither one of them told each other everything, so it would be interesting if the cat would tell her.

"Then it's not my business to know." The shorter mage shrugged, she wouldn't mess with other people's personal lives, unless she feared for their safety.

"So you mind your business when it comes to him, huh?" Gajeel joked, looking at her with a somewhat offended expression.

"Yes, because I only do it with you to annoy you." Levy said sarcastically after noting his joking tone.

"Well that explains everythin'." He began "Lil' shrimp is getting back at me."

"Maybe I am." She laughed, she liked having a casual conversation with him that actually involved him, instead of just her rambling on and on about books.

Gajeel chuckled, he really liked being around the short mage, plus she had an adorable laugh so being the one to make her laugh was a little victory on its' own. But he had to remind himself that it could end badly if he didn't stay away from her during the month, he was already saying things without thinking and the more she was around him, he could start doing things without thinking.

Now that he had gotten himself in a situation where she would be coming to him every now and then so he could teach to cook, he was going to have to rethink his entire plan and try coming up with a new one quickly. Or he could just actually start flirting with her and see if it goes somewhere but that was a stupid idea and he didn't deserve her because she was nice and sweet and he was an asshole.

Of course the pair were being watched a few curious eyes while they spoke, and two sets were behind the bar stand. Mirajane was cleaning some empty mugs while watching them, and Pantherlily, who was hiding his scent by being around some open bottles, he watched his dragon slayer laugh with the solid script mage. The exceed actually had some hope for the tall mage, if things would go this smoothly, maybe he would actually tell her about his season, if he didn't then he was sure to do something he'd regret.

"You think those two might finally get together?" Mirajane asked as she placed down a now clean mug.

"I sure hope so, rather sooner than later." Lily stated.

"Give them time, they've been through alot." She looked at the black exceed.

"Time isn't exactly what he has right now." He whispered, he was worried about Gajeel and Levy, those two had issues and really needed to work them out together.

"They're not the only match that seems to be coming together." Mirajane gestured towards a certain pink haired and blonde duo that had barely left each others side once they had both entered the guild hall earlier that day.

It seemed though that Natsu was the one who was following Lucy around like a lost puppy, Lucy had entered the guild hall rather early and that was the only time that she had been away from the fire dragon slayer. When his pink head had joined everyone with his blue friend, Natsu quickly made his way to the celestial mage and they hadn't separated unless they had no other choice.

It wasn't exactly new that those two were close, which is why more people were focusing on Gajeel and Levy in the corner. But once the guild had returned to it's normal bustling self, most of them forgot about the pairs. Though they did notice that Natsu was somewhat absent throughout most of the brawl, but then Gray had thrown an insult at the pink haired boy and he joined.

In the corner, Levy and Gajeel just watched the events unfold before them, tables and chairs were being thrown about, bottles and barrels of alcohol were crashing. A few items had come their way but they usually missed them, so they didn't worry much. Levy then saw a bottle suddenly appear right in front of her and she barely had time to react, she managed to close her eyes and when she expected it to hit her smack in the face, all she felt was a wet sensation on the side of her face. Gajeel had pulled her out of the way so the bottle crashed against the wall and not long after that, Makarov stopped the brawl.

Levy was still processing what had happened, it had transpired so quickly and she could have sworn that the bottle was much closer to her face. Now there were a few shards of it tangled in her wine covered hair. What made her finally come out of her head, she noticed that Gajeel was still holding her, and she noticed that he hadn't just grabbed her by the arm, and thankfully not by her dress, instead he had reached over her shoulders and pulled her into his chest.

"G-Gajeel?" She didn't want to look up at him due to the warmth in her cheeks. "Gajeel, are you alright?" She tried again since he hadn't responded.

"Y-yeah." He gulped, he didn't want to let her go and his body wasn't listening to him.

"You can let me go now." She said, still not looking up at him.

"Yeah." He slowly let her go, his body still not wanting to listen to him.

Levy moved away a little, noticing the some of the wine had landed on her dress, thankfully it was white wine so at least it wasn't going to stain. When she looked away from her wet dress, she noticed the pieces of glass embedded in his arm and the trickles of blood flowing from the wounds.

"Gajeel! You're bleeding!" She pulled his arm to inspect it. "Why didn't you use your scales?!"

"Oh, I'm bleeding." He said nonchalantly.

"Here let me." She started picking the glass shards out of his arms, and with a napkin, started wiping away the blood and trying her best to stop the bleeding, not that it was going well.

Gajeel was really loving this moment and how determined she was to help him, he couldn't help but stare at her while she did her best to clean the blood, and it would be so easy, to just, lean in and kiss her. Then he figured out what he was thinking and pulled himself away from her delicate hands.

"I'm trying to help you here..." She stated.

"I need to go." He quickly stood up and made his way out of the guild, leaving Levy alone and confused, while Gajeel kept walking with the occasional drop of blood hitting the ground.

"I'm in so much trouble." Gajeel whispered to himself as he walked back home, the cold rain soaking him completely, his hair flat down his back and his clothes clinging to his skin.

The streets were rather empty so he didn't need to take any of the alleyways to avoid people. Now he could take the shortest way home and not be bothered by someone or something, or a black exceed for that matter. Right now he needed to be alone and contemplate about what he wanted to about his situation because it seemed like his body didn't want to listen to him much whenever she was around.

Once he made it through the door of his house, he took of his wet boots and went straight to his room, not bothering about the wet drops he was leaving all over the place. Once in his room, he quickly undressed and went straight to the bathroom, locking himself in there and turned on the shower. He just needed to do something to help him think, to get his mind off of Levy.

He didn't care that the water was scalding hot or that his skin was turning red because of it, he just needed to come up with something quick or he'd end up doing something he would regret.

* * *

Lucy walked over to the blue haired mage who was still sitting there and looking at the door, of course Natsu followed close by like he had done the whole day.

"What happened?" She asked.

"I don't know." Levy answered "He just left all of a sudden."

"Weird." Lucy stated.

"How weird can it be? It's Gajeel." Natsu said.

"No, it is weird." The solid script mage said as she stood up "He sounded weird." She looked at the door a little worriedly.

"Why don't you follow him then?" The celestial mage suggested.

"When I reek of wine?" The short mage asked.

"I guess that's not a very good idea…" The blonde laughed.

"Yeah, you smell kinda bad." Natsu added, which earned him a light slap on the chest from Lucy.

"I'm gonna go home and take a shower." She said and left the guild, almost forgetting her umbrella not that it would change much now that half her head was covered in wine and a good portion of her dress was too.

It was cold outside and the rain would only make it worse, so she decided to hide under her umbrella for the time being. Thankfully it didn't take her very long to reach Fairy Hills and thus her room, where she was quick to move to the bathroom to take a shower. When examining herself in the mirror she noticed the pieces of glass that were tangled in her hair and she knew that she had to try pulling as many out before getting in, and she had to be careful not to cut herself.

After she managed to take out most of the glass shards, she jumped into the shower, the water was at a nice temperature and it was a good time for her to think. She had something to go on now though, Gajeel had agreed to teach her how to cook so she would just have to somehow make a move then, it was just a matter of when that would even happen. Despite agreeing to it, neither of them had suggested a time to do it, so she'd just have to talk to him tomorrow, at least she'd have a conversation starter then.

Levy finished her shower after she had cleaned her hair multiple times, just to be sure that the wine smell wouldn't stick to her too much. She wasn't a fan of the smell of alcohol nor intaking the substance itself, she tended to get very rowdy and loud and end up saying and doing something stupid, so the less she smelled like it, the better.

She looked at the clock on her night stand, noticing that she'd only been at the guild for a little over a couple hours, she would have gone back. But right now, she just wanted to take it easy and read a book. The others would understand, besides, she had some big days coming up and she was going to make the best of them.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **So things are finally picking up! What do you think will happen next? hoho**

 **Thank you for reading!**

 **please rate and review**


	6. Clearing the Air

A few days had passed since Levy had last seen Gajeel, a few days since he had agreed to teaching her how to cook and she got her chance to be with him more. She was starting to doubt herself, maybe he regretted his decision and was trying to avoid her, maybe the girls were wrong. She tried talking to Lily whenever she could, asking the exceed how the dragon slayer was doing, but she always got the same answer.

"Levy, he's doing alright, but I think you should check up on him."

"I don't want to be a bother." She always answered "I'll just wait for him to show up."

And each time, he tried harder to persuade her, it made her think that the girls had gotten him in on the plan and didn't let her know. The cat wasn't the only one trying to persuade her to go to Gajeel's place to see how he was doing, the girls were being quite persistent, especially Cana who was getting very close to dragging the short mage over to the iron dragon slayers house and somehow lock them inside.

"It's almost been a week Levy! Go see him, even Lily wants you to do it." Cana exclaimed.

"It hasn't been that long…" Although it was close to being a full week.

"He said he was going to teach you how to cook." Cana stated "Use that as an excuse or something."

"Juvia agrees with Cana." The water mage said. "Gajeel would love seeing you." She tried reassuring her fellow blue haired mage.

"Has anyone seen Lucy?" Levy asked.

"Don't try changing the subject, missy." Cana warned the short mage. "Just go check on him, I promise that it will go well."

"You check your cards for that?" Levy looked at the card mage suspiciously.

"In fact, I did, now go." She did a shooing motion with her hands.

"Alright, alright, I'll go." Levy finally caved in.

"Atta girl!" Cana exclaimed happily and she dragged the water mage up to her feet and then the solid script mage. She dragged the two of them to the main door, just to be sure that Levy wouldn't give up way too quickly.

"Just stay confident." The dark haired mage patted the short mage on the back "You're wearing a great outfit, you're not covered in wine, everything will work out."

"Thanks…" In all honestly, she didn't want to remember the wine incident, she had really liked that dress and she was still trying to get the smell of wine out of it.

Levy took a deep breath before she went outside into the cool autumn air, she was still wearing more summer like clothing, this time a short skirt with suspenders over a plain White T-shirt, she wore stockings and ankle boots, simple, yet good. It didn't cover her from the autumn winds much, and it did earn her a lot of stares when she walked through Magnolia.

Juvia and Cana watched the short mage leave, both of them looking at her proudly. They both knew that she was insecure and that she had started doubting herself after the first day Gajeel hadn't showed up. So they were determined to lift her spirits and get back that confidence that she had acquired a few days before.

"Ah."

"What?" Cana asked the water mage after she had made that noise.

"It's about to rain." She stated, looking up at the misleading clouds and back to the fading form of the solid script mage.

"Well, well." Cana smirked, rain might just help the little mage and her tall dragon slayer.

* * *

Levy didn't notice the clouds growing heavier and just kept walking to Gajeel's home at the end of town. She was going at a rather slow pace, doubt still plaguing her mind about the whole thing, but she kept repeating Cana's words of encouragement in her mind, she could do this, things would end up going great.

Then the first few drops starting landing on the ground, at first the blue haired girl didn't notice anything, then she felt the cold and wet sensation of the raindrops hitting her skin and hair. She groaned loudly, maybe Cana had been wrong, things were not going well at all, or maybe they still could, it wasn't raining all that much.

It seemed like the universe really loved her right now, and the rain started coming down in buckets, She was soaked to the bone almost instantly and it was to late for her to go back or to Fairy hills, the rain was cold and the wind didn't help and she wasn't all that far from Gajeel's house. So she made her choice and started running towards the iron dragon slayers home, trying to cover herself with her arms, though she knew that it would be a futile effort.

Finally she reached her destination and she prepared to knock on the door but before her hand came into contact with the wooden door she hesitated, the doubts she had been having for the past few days came crawling back, a part of her was practically screaming at her to turn around and just give up.

"Alright Levy, you can do this." She whispered to herself and took a deep breath before she knocked on the door, now all she could do was wait.

It didn't take long for the door to open and the soaking wet mage was met with the dry and topless Iron Dragon slayer. The moment didn't last long as the moment Gajeel looked over the petite mage, his eyes widened and he slammed the door, leaving Levy staring at the now closed door in shock.

Levy was left outside in the rain in bewilderment, he had just slammed the door shut the moment he saw her and she had no idea what to think about that, all she could do was stand in the rain with her mouth agape. On the other side of the door, Gajeel was doing the same, it wasn't until the black exceed came walking in that Gajeel finally snapped out of it.

"Who was that?" Lily asked, but he never got an answer from the dragon slayer, all he did was grab a coat that was hanging on the wall and he opened the door again.

"What are you doing out here!" He didn't mean for it to come out as angry as it did, but he was glad that the shrimp was still standing there so he could wrap her up in his coat and pull her inside. "It's freezing! What were you thinking!"

"What?" Levy was still getting over her initial shock.

"You're soaked!" He held her tight, trying to warm her up a little bit, though he knew that if she didn't get out of those wet clothes, not much would change.

"I...Gajeel? " She looked up at the taller mage, drops dripping from her hair."You slammed the door on me, you jerk!" She began hitting his chest, not that it would do much.

"I'm sorry alright!" At least he knew that she was going to be alright now.

"It's raining!" She kept hitting him.

"Your shirt is white!" And so was her bra apparently.

"My shirt is…?" It hit her like a truck, she completely forgot that her shirt was white and since she was soaking wet, it didn't really cover anything and she had shown the world her simple white bra. After her realization her face burned and she couldn't look at Gajeel any longer due to embarrassment.

"I panicked, alright." He ran his hand through his hair.

"You what?" She had to admit that his panicking was cute, even if he slammed a door in her face.

"Just come on." He sighed, she was going to be the death of him and he knew it.

Levy pushed herself out of her ankle boots quickly and walked passed the dragon slayer, still wearing the coat that he'd wrapped her in. That's when she noticed that Lily was standing not to far away from them, she wondered how long he's been there.

"You probably want to change into something dry?" The black cat asked the short mage who nodded in agreement, though she did wonder what, she didn't bring anything else with her. "Gajeel, could you go find something for her?"

Gajeel sighed and followed the two upstairs, Lily lead Levy to the bathroom while Gajeel went into his room, that damn cheeky cat was doing this on purpose and he knew it, and if the rain wouldn't let up, he would probably invite her to stay too. Gajeel did want her to stay so she wouldn't have to go out in that rain, but he knew that it would just be asking for trouble and he had been doing a great job at avoiding it so far.

"Turn left for cold and right for hot, and there are some towels in the cabinet over there." The exceed pointed out "But I'll leave one out for you."

"Thank you." She said before Lily went out of the bathroom and she locked the door. It was a very plain bathroom, white tiles, a dark gray counter with a sink, and a cabinet on each side, one which held the towels she knew thanks to Pantherlily, but she had no idea what the other one hid. If it weren't for her wet clothes, she probably would have checked but she just wanted to get out of them and into a warm shower.

While she got herself ready in the bathroom, both Gajeel and Lily were in the formers bedroom, one looking through his drawers to find something for the shrimp, while the other sat on the bed, trying his best not to smile.

"Having a hard time there?" Lily teased the dragon slayer since he had been going through the same drawer for a while now.

"No." Yes he was.

"I'm just trying to help, you know?" Lily sighed, he knew exactly what was bothering the taller mage.

"Well I didn't ask for your help." He almost yelled, he had to remind himself that his walls weren't the thickest in the world and he didn't want Levy to hear anything he didn't want her to hear. "In fact, I wanted you to not do anything."

"It's for your own good Gajeel." He tried defending himself.

"No it's not, you're just making it worse." He finally turned around to look at the cat.

"You both obviously like each other romantically, who knows, maybe you love each other." Lily began. "So why don't you at least tell her why you've been avoiding her?"

"Because it would just scare her away." Gajeel answered "What do you even want me to say?" He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Hey shrimp, Dragon Slayers have seasons which means they get a really strong urge to mate with someone, and especially someone who they feel they're meant to be with and guess what, that's you."

"Maybe word it differently?"

"I'm not done yet." And he began again "I know I beat you and your fanboys half to death that one time but I hope that's just water under the bridge!" He forgot to lower his voice that time, and noticed it a little too late.

"Just talk to her damn it." Lily was getting really frustrated, how could one person be this stubborn. "Have you two ever done that?"

Gajeel couldn't answer, they had never talked about those events, none of them had, yeah there were a few mentions of it back when he first joined Fairy Tail. But after that, it almost felt like the whole thing had become a taboo, he admitted that he didn't like thinking about how he used to be, but it was still a part of him and he couldn't change that, which is why he didn't deserve the little fairy that was currently taking a shower in his bathroom.

"I'll take that as a no." Lily crossed his little arms. "Just find her a change of clothes, alright?"

The taller of the two grunted a response and he went back to his drawer, he pulled out a black t-shirt and a pair of his boxer briefs so she could at least wear something under it, even if his shirt would just look like a dress on her. This was going to be a very long night and he had to try his best to control himself, but the image of the shrimp in his clothes was going to kill him alone, a very long night indeed.

He knocked on the bathroom door after he left Lily in the bedroom, the shower wasn't on so he guessed that she had already finished, the talk with Pantherlily had taken all of his attention so he had completely missed the sound of the shower. After not getting a response from the first knock, he tried again.

"Shrimp, I got some clothes." He called through the wooden door.

"Just a second." Finally a response from the other side, Gajeel only had to wait for a little bit until the door opened and her dainty hand came out through the crack, he quickly handed her the bundle of clothes and she almost just as quickly pulled them in, closing the door soon after and locking it.

Inside the bathroom, Levy held the towel in place, she had wrapped it around her naked body since she had no other choice, though when she had heard the first knock, she had frozen still, only to realize that she had done so when she heard the second knock and Gajeel's voice calling her. Somehow the idea of her being naked in his house got her a little excited and it felt a little weird, it's not like anything was happening except for the fact that she would be wearing his clothes in his house, with him around.

Then it hit her, wearing his clothes could help her with her mission, though his clothes were much too big for her and she was afraid that it would look like she was wearing a bag or something along those lines. But this was her only option at the moment so she was just going to have to try her best. She slipped on his boxer briefs, they were a little loose but for once she was really thankful for her ample rear and thighs so despite them being loose, she could trust that they wouldn't fall down, she then put on his shirt which just went a little longer than her usual dresses, but she couldn't help but notice that it smelled like him, like iron and something earthy that she couldn't quite recognize but was undoubtedly him.

When she got out of the bathroom, she heard something happening down in the kitchen and made her way downstairs where she found Gajeel, and only Gajeel, working on something by the stove. She leaned against the doorway, watching him cook, she knew that he knew she was there thanks to his enhanced senses, so she just waited for him to say something.

"I hope you don't mind grilled cheese." He couldn't ignore her presence any longer, but he wasn't going to look.

"I don't mind." She noticed that gajeel still hadn't put on a shirt, so while she watched him, she could stare at all those delicious back muscles work while he cooked, she also noticed the piercings he had on his back, four lower back dimple piercings, three on each shoulder blade, and a few going down his spine, she wondered where else he was pierced.

"You realise that I know you're staring at me?" He said with a cuckle.

Levy blushed, she was just being curious nothing more, even if she really liked watching him while he was like that, she really needed to stop thinking like that. To stop herself from staring much longer, she just sat down by the table, same place as last time and waited for the food.

"Where's Lily?" She asked.

"He wanted us to talk, so he left." Gajeel cursed inwardly, he didn't mean to say that.

"About what?"

Gajeel swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat, he really didn't want to talk about this, but he had dug his own grave when he had told her why the exceed was absent, so now it was his time to lay in it. "About Phantom...and..what happened."

"Oh." A moment of silence followed "You know that I've forgiven you right? We all have."

"Yeah…" He knew, but that wasn't the problem.

"Juvia told me that you haven't forgiven yourself though…" She wanted to be subtle about this, but she just had to confirm it right away.

"She did, did she?" He'd need to talk to that rain woman once this was over.

"She's just worried about you." And so was she. "Can you tell me why?"

Gajeel finished the sandwiches and put them on a plate, thinking about an answer, he knew the reason why he had a hard time doing it, he just didn't know if he wanted to tell the shrimp that. But he knew that he and Lily would end up arguing about this if he didn't so, might as well try.

"I wasn't a good man, is all." There was more, he just didn't want to talk about it.

"But you're a good man now." Levy stated as he placed her plate in front of her and sat down himself.

He just grunted a response, this was getting awkward.

"You've helped all of us a lot too." She said.

"After what I did, I had to do something." He slowly started eating his grilled cheese sandwich, normally he'd eat faster, but their conversation was making him lose his appetite.

"You've also saved my life more than once." She started thinking about those times, Laxus's lightning, Tenrou Island, he also helped with the effort in Edolas, she guessed that kind of counted too.

"I also beat you half to death." He stated.

"And crucified me to a tree."

"That too." He agreed.

"But that was a long time ago, technically seven years." She giggled, trying to make light of the whole thing.

"Not for us though."

"Gajeel." She reached over the table and placed her hand over his "We can't change what happened, nor forget it, all we can do is move on."

Her touch burned against his skin, but it was a good burn, and he needed more of it, but he couldn't let himself lose control, so he pulled his hand away from hers.

The shorter mage looked at him sadly, she noticed that he had been avoiding her gaze the whole time, and she noticed just how uncomfortable he seemed about the whole subject. But she knew that Lily was right, and they needed to talk about it, plus she was kind of hoping to see a more vulnerable side of him, he tended to keep everything to himself anyway, and she wanted to be there for him.

"I sometimes go to that tree, you know." This got his attention "I sit down and read sometimes, or just stay there and think."

This time she was the one avoiding his gaze. "No one really thinks about looking for me over there, so it's a place where I can go when I need to be alone for a little bit."

"The memory still hurts." She kept going when he didn't respond "But you're not the same person as you were back then."

"What makes you think that?" He finally said something.

"Because I've seen it." She smiled "And you've got a family now." He couldn't help but smile at that, she wasn't wrong.

"You should start eating before it gets cold." He pointed at her sandwich, she hadn't touched it since she was too busy talking.

They finished their sandwiches in silence, neither one of them felt uncomfortable so they didn't try breaking it, not even while Gajeel cleaned the dishes. Though the silence had to end at some point and when Levy looked out the window and saw that it was still pouring outside, she groaned.

"You alright, shrimp?" The dragon slayer asked absentmindedly.

"No, it's still raining cats and dogs outside."

"I have an extra room." Stupid lack of brain to mouth filter, he mentally slapped himself.

"I wouldn't want to impose." She scratched her head awkwardly.

"You don't have to if ya don't want to." He shrugged, maybe she'd leave, as much as he wanted her to stay, it wouldn't be good for him or his instincts.

"I guess it would be better for me to stay since I don't have any clothes other than yours…" It was going to be awkward but she couldn't exactly walk to the other end of town wearing his clothes in the rain.

"Guess you're stayin' then." He turned around to look at her for once, she had stood up at that point and he mentally slapped himself again for turning around at that point, she looked too damn cute wearing his shirt.

"Thank you Gajeel" She smiled and hugged him, making him scream internally to try to distract himself from the fact that she was this close, he wanted to hug her, and he was ready to do it, but he kept his arms away the best he could. But his body was still rebelling so he started shaking, and thus, shaking Levy too.

"Are you alright?" She asked when she pulled away.

"Yeah, fine" That came out more high pitched than he intended it to.

"If you say so." She wasn't convinced, something was bothering him, but it was funny hearing his voice crack like that.

"I have some books in the living room." He needed to get away from her right now. "If you want to check them out."

"Oh, cool!" She couldn't help but leave him and see what kind of books he had.

After she left, Gajeel turned back to the kitchen counter and grabbed it tight enough to slightly crack it, he needed to touch her more, hold her and just, be with her. But he couldn't do that, not now, not ever. If he would do something he'd have to explain it to her and he still didn't want that, and he still firmly believed that he didn't deserve her, so he stayed in the kitchen for a while to compose himself, take a few deep breath, and when he felt ready, he joined her in the living room.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Sorry for the wait! Not that it was very long, but last week was a little busy for me, and especially this weekend since I went to see the Swan Lake and shit**

 **But Here have a whole chapter of some Gajevy goodness!**

 **please rate and review!**


	7. One at a Time

The morning sun shined through the dark curtains of the room, the sunlight slowly crept towards the bed where the blue haired mage was soundly sleeping. When the bright light finally reached her eyes, she eventually stirred awake from the invading light. She rubbed her eyes as she sat up, it took her a minute to realize where she was and what had happened the night before.

Levy remembered reading a book on music theory while Gajeel had been up to something else, but she couldn't remember how she got into the bed. The last thing she remembered from the night was reading a book while sitting in the iron dragon slayers sofa. She guessed that she fell asleep on the sofa, but that would mean that Gajeel had carried her to bed.

Blood rushed to her face thinking about the dragon slayer carrying her to bed, he could have just woken her up. To try getting her mind off of that, she decided to look around the room she was currently in, not that there was much to look at, she was in a decently sized bed, there were bed side tables on each side, one side had a lamp that was turned off. There was a dresser against the wall by the door and a desk by the window, and that was about it, no decorations which told Levy that this was just a guest room that wasn't used much.

She slipped from under the covers and stood up, she stretched her arms high above her head and let out a sound as she did so. Walking over to the window, she pulled the curtains away to let the sunshine in, though she noticed that the sky was still filled with heavy clouds but there were holes here and there which explained how the sun could have woken her up.

Her stomach growled all of a sudden, telling her to go find some food downstairs, which also meant that she would see Gajeel again and that gave her the chance to thank him for carrying her.

Since she didn't have any other clothes to put on, she went downstairs right away and headed for the kitchen where she expected to see Gajeel. When she entered, she only saw the black exceed, who was sitting by the table in his battle form, drinking coffee and reading the paper.

"Good morning, Levy." He greeted her.

"Morning." She replied. "Where's Gajeel?" She asked a little too quickly, making her feel a little rude.

"He left not to long ago." Pantherlily just sipped his coffee.

"To do what?" She inquired.

"To run some errands I believe." Actually he had no idea why Gajeel had suddenly left. "Although, he should be heading to the guild hall today." Because the cat was going to make him this time.

"He will?" This intrigued the blue haired mage and the exceed nodded to answer her.

"I'm glad." She smiled "I was getting worried."

"About what?" Lily asked the short mage.

"That he was avoiding me." She laughed nervously, scratching the back of her head.

"I promise you that he was doing no such thing." He lied.

"Are you sure?" She jokingly asked. "Maybe he could still smell the wine on me after all that time."

Lily couldn't help but laugh at that, and Levy soon joined him.

"That reminds me!" She began "How's his arm?"

"It's fine, fully healed and everything."

"That's good." She was still wondering why he didn't use his scales though.

"He's a dragon slayer after all, no surprise that he'd be fully healed from something like that after less than a week." The exceed put down his paper, no point reading it while talking to someone.

Levy's stomach growled once more at that moment, making her blush a little again. This only made the black cat chuckle and point out where they kept the cereal and what she needed for it, and not long after that, Levy had joined him by the table and was eating her breakfast.

"Do you think there's any reason why Gajeel didn't use his scales that time?" She needed to ask.

"No, but he recently he seemed to be having some trouble with controlling them." He knew he wasn't supposed to tell her that, but maybe she'd ask the dragon slayer why and he'd end up having to explain what was going on with him.

"How strange." She noted.

They kept talking about the dragon slayer for a little while longer until Levy had finished her cereal. While cleaning her bowl and spoon, something finally hit her.

"Wait, what day is it?" She asked.

"It's a Friday, why?" Lily was a little confused to say the least.

"Oh no!" She exclaimed. "Jet and Droy should be coming back today!"

"I need to go to the guild hall!" She then hurried to the entry way but stopped before she put on her shoes.

"Lily!" She called "Are my clothes dry yet?"

Lily flew over to her in his smaller form "Not yet, but you can take his jacket." Lily took a leather jacket off of the hanger and handed it to the short mage.

"Are you sure?" She asked, holding the jacket.

"You can just return it later, alright."

"Thank you." She quickly put on her shoes and hurried over to Fairy hills so she could get a change of clothes and not be bombarded by questions and suggestive looks from her guildmates.

Not long after the solid script mage left, the iron dragon slayer entered his home, greeted his cat and started making his way up the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Pantherlily asked.

"To sleep, shrimp's scent was everywhere and it was driving me crazy." He stopped half way to answer the exceed.

"Well she'll have other scents on her after today." It was time to get Gajeel to go to the guild hall for once.

"What do you mean?" He glared at the cat, he was up to something.

"Well Shadow Gear seems to be reuniting today." Lily began "And those two are bound to be all over her when they finally see her after two weeks."

"So?" He just had to play it cool and not let the black exceed get to him.

"So their scents will be all over her, right?" All he had to do was bite the bait.

Gajeel glared at him once more, he knew that Lily was right but he also knew that he was baiting him, and despite Gajeel's stubbornness, he was at his limit. The season was making him want to scent mark the small mage and he had a hard enough time keeping himself from doing it while he carried her to the guest room, it had been heaven and hell at the same time for him.

"Alright, fine!" He gave in, he just had to go to the guild hall and stay in his corner and everything would be fine. He wasn't going to be around the shrimp too much and just stay calm and collected, everything would be fine.

* * *

For the upteenth time, Lucy woke up do to the amount of heat coming from her partner, her window was wide open so despite the cool autumn wind coming in, it did nothing against the heat coming from the fire dragon slayer. After waking up to this every night, she was starting to get a little used to it, but it was still rather uncomfortable.

"Natsu." She tried shaking him awake with no avail. "Natsu." She tried again.

"Luce, sleep." He slurred while he started petting the blonde.

"Natsu! Wake up!" She shouted into his ear, which was enough to get him to let her go, but it was also just enough to make him fall of the bed with a loud yelp and a thump.

"No need to yell so loud." He rubbed his head while he sat up.

"You wouldn't wake up, I had to do something." It would be best not to tell him about the whole petting thing.

She climbed out of bed and started going through her dresser, she hadn't had the chance to go see anyone the day before since Natsu was being very weird. But now she had to go see the girls and talk to them about this, he was just acting too weird and she was getting worried about her friend.

"I'm going to need some time with just the girls today." She said after she found her outfit for the day.

"Okey Dokey." He agreed.

"That means, alone with them." Just to be sure he knew what she meant. "So Could you not follow me around all day?"

"When have I ever done that?" His head tilted to the side.

She sighed and shook her head, either Natsu hadn't noticed that he was following her around like a lost puppy, or he was playing dumb. Her trust in him did not waver though, so she believed that he would abide by her wish.

"Don't set my kitchen on fire again, alright?" She glared at the pink haired boy, she wasn't exactly in the mood to get scolded by her landlady again. Natsu only pouted, it's not like he did it on purpose.

While Lucy changed in the bathroom, she started thinking about the plan, she hadn't really been doing anything about it, if she had to be honest, she'd admit that she was a little nervous. She was worried that it would put their friendship in danger, and that was something she valued too much to risk, but she knew that if she wanted to be honest about her feelings, then she'd have to go for it and tell him how she felt.

To bad it was easier said than done.

Today she would have a good talk with the girls, maybe see if Levy was having any luck with her little mission. If not they were both in need of some help as it would turn out they were both hopeless. But she had to stay positive, things would work out, everything would be fine, and they'd both have something before the first fall of snow.

There were still a couple or so months that normally would be without snow, and there was a chance that it wouldn't come right away, so they had time, and it made Lucy breathe a little bit easier. But she still worried about Natsu, he was acting strange and she was afraid that something was up, maybe it was just a dragon slayer thing, who knows.

* * *

Seeing as it was early in the morning, the guildhall was a rather quiet place for once, there were a few members around, either talking to someone or checking the request board. Like most mornings, there were no fights or too much rowdiness, it was something that Levy was not used to at all.

She had a tendency to sleep in til around noon, she hadn't even noticed that it was this early when she woke up. Somehow she had been too caught up in the fact that Gajeel had carried her to bed, unless Lily had come home while she slept and carried her instead, but she was going to ignore that possibility for now.

She had hoped to be able to meet up with Cana and the others when she arrived, but by the looks of it, she was the only one of them that had arrived. Except for Mirajane who always had to be here early to care for everything and such, so Levy had only her to talk to, so she made her way to the bar and sat up on a stool and waited for the white haired mage.

"You're up early." Mira greeted the shorter mage.

"I honestly don't know how it happened myself." Levy laughed.

"I hope you had enough sleep." The taller brought her a glass of water, which Levy eagerly drank from.

"I'm not tired, so I'll be fine." Levy began "Any news from Jet and Droy? They were coming back today, right?"

"They contacted us last night, they should arrive sometime in the afternoon."

"Can't wait." The solid script mage smiled, it had been two weeks since she last saw her two friends and she had a few questions to ask them.

"Did you see Gajeel yesterday?" Mira asked all of a sudden, making Levy choke on her water.

"W-what?" She coughed a little, her hand resting over her collarbone out of habit.

"Well Cana told me that you were heading over to see if he was alright." Somehow there was some hint of mischief in the Strauss's tone.

"I did see him." Levy sighed, she couldn't lie about this even if she wanted "I was worried."

"Well it started raining not long after you left." Mira smiled "And if I recall, you were wearing white."

"Nothing happened Mira." She deadpanned "He just helped me out a little."

"How so?" She just had to know how their evening went, she knew that Levy hadn't come back to Fairy hills the night before.

"He let me stay." Levy said, feeling the warmth in her cheeks thanks to Mirajane's prodding.

"And?" The shorter mage was hiding something and she was determined to find out what.

"He let me have some of his clothes…" She was almost sure that her entire face was red now.

"How cute." Mira patted her head with a wide smile, maybe there actually was some hope for these two despite both of their issues and stubbornness.

"I guess." Maybe she should tell her about their little talk too.

"Something on your mind?" She asked, the barmaid noticed the slight shift in her expression.

"Yeah, but, I'm not sure if I should say." She watched herself fiddle with her fingers, she wanted to talk about it, but somehow it felt personal, and that it should just remain between the two of them.

"Well I'm not going to force you, just tell me when you're ready." The white haired woman could tease her fellow guildmates but she wasn't evil, despite the whole demon aspect.

"Thanks Mira." Levy said before the other had to go back to her duties, leaving the solid script mage alone with her mind.

Eventually as the hours passed, Levy was joined by her fellow plotters, including Lucy who had been absent the day before. Not long after Natsu arrived and hung around Happy for once, and Gajeel went straight to his corner after he entered the guild hall.

"Alright, since we're all here, let's begin." Cana said before pointing at Levy "You go to Gajeel's last night?"

"I did…" She just knew that she was going to be getting some weird questions again.

"Great, you two get frisky?" She asked out of nowhere.

"What?" A blush made it's way to her cheeks. "No!"

"Damn, I was hoping something would happen with the rain and all." The dark haired mage sighed.

"He just helped me out a little, and let me stay the night." The short mage couldn't look any one of them directly in the eyes for some reason.

"That's something!" Cana grinned. "Now on to you." She now pointed at Lucy.

"Me?" The blonde was going to have to explain things now.

"Lucy never showed up yesterday, and neither did Natsu." Juvia pointed out. "Juvia is very curious."

"Well...uhm." Where to begin. "I couldn't sleep much, and Natsu was being weird."

"Weird how?" Levy asked.

"He kept bringing me shiny stuff" Lucy began. "I have more spoons that I know what to do with now."

"That is weird." Cana stated. "But why the sleeplessness?"

"Don't know, it's as if Natsu can't control it or something." The celestial mage answered.

"Reminds me of what Lily said about Gajeel." The shorter blue haired mage added.

"What about Gajeel?" Juvia asked, what Lucy said about Natsu reminded her about something Gajeel had told her some time ago.

"Lily said that he was having a harder time controlling his iron scales." Levy began. "Which explains why he didn't use them when he saved me from that wine bottle the other day."

"That is a bit weird." Cana wondered.

"Natsu's also been very clingy ever since we came back." The blonde mage said. "He never seems to want to let me go, and it doesn't help that he keeps getting morning wood either." Lucy couldn't help but blush a bit of the memory.

The water mage found all of this to be rather suspicious, she was sure that Gajeel had mentioned something like that happening to dragon slayers during a certain time, and not long after she started reminiscing about her Phantom days with Gajeel, it finally hit her, she knew what was going on with those two.

"Juvia needs to talk to Gajeel." She quickly stood up and made her way over to the Iron Dragon slayer in the corner.

"Gajeel, Juvia has a question." She said.

"What." He answered, he wasn't in the mood for this at all, but the water mage was his friend, so he'd at least give her a chance.

"Is it Gajeel's and Natsu's seasons?" Best to get right to the point.

It took Gajeel a second to process what his friend had just asked him, of course she knew so there was no denying it and he simply sighed. "Yeah, seems like it."

"Seems?" The blue haired mage asked.

"Don't know about Salamander, but his scent is all over Bunny girl and not to mention that his scent's weird too." Gajeel explained, might as well tell someone he trusted.

"Do you think he knows?" Juvia just kept asking.

"What's with all the questions?" Not a big fan of being asked much.

"Juvia will explain later." She sighed. "But Gajeel should talk to Natsu, maybe Wendy too."

"Agreed." Gajeel took a deep breath. "Been meaning to do that."

With that he stood up and went straight to Wendy, who had been chatting about something with Erza, the iron dragon slayer hadn't really been paying any attention to anything but the shrimp so most other activities going on in the guild had gone right over his head. Since Wendy was with the requip mage, he couldn't tell her why he needed to talk to her and Natsu, but she seemed to catch on to the urgency in Gajeel's voice pretty quickly.

It took a little more to convince the other dragon slayer to go outside to talk, but eventually, Wendy managed. They had to leave all their exceeds inside, meaning it was just the three of them in the cool autumn air behind the guild building.

"What's the big deal?" Natsu asked with crossed arms, obviously annoyed.

"How much do you two know about Dragon mating seasons?" Gajeel had to get right to the point.

"I was very young when mom was around, so I don't know very much." Wendy answered his question.

"I think Igneel told me about it at some point." Natsu remembered.

"Great." The iron dragon sighed, this was going to be harder than he thought. "Well it happens to dragon slayers too."

"Except it only happens every other year for us, but lasts for a month." He kept on going. "And it just so happens that now it's my month."

"Pfff, So metal brain's gonna be acting weird:" Natsu laughed.

"It's not just my season you idiot." Oh how he wanted to hit the flame dragon right now, but this was a serious matter and he had to keep his cool.

"It's Natsu's too, isn't it?" Wendy asked, she had noticed the difference in both of their scents some time ago, but she didn't think much of it.

"What makes you say that?" The pink haired mage asked.

"Well both of you smell different." The young dragon slayer answered.

"Not just that, your scent's all over the bunny girl." Gajeel stated.

"She's my friend, it's nothing surprising." Natsu tried defending himself.

"You've been scent marking her you dunce." It would have been so easy to just hit him right there.

"So?" It didn't sound so bad to the fire dragon.

"So you better start being careful unless you want to do something you might regret." The taller mage said in a low tone, he really wasn't liking it being around him, which wasn't so surprising as they were both males and both in their season.

"So Lucy is Natsu's mate?" Wendy asked "Has gajeel found his?"

"Seems like it." He answered both questions simultaneously.

"Me and Luce are just friends." He kept trying to defend himself.

"Even I can tell that you and Lucy like each other…" She decided not to tell him about the betting board.

"Enough about that, who's your mate metal breath?" He had to get the attention off of him.

"None of your business, flame brain." he glared at the fire dragon slayer, he really didn't want to talk about this.

"It's Levy, isn't it?" The sky dragon slayer asked, it made the most sense to her.

Gajeel didn't answer, he couldn't deny it for much longer, but he wasn't going to say it outloud.

"You've been getting really close, you even smell a little like her." Natsu teased, which made Gajeel just give up and he hit the pink haired mage on the head, which ended up in a bout between the two.

Thankfully Wendy managed to stop them not long after, but now they'd both have to go back in the hall with some scratches and bruises, at least Wendy was fine. They all went back to what they were doing before they left for their talk, Wendy went back to her conversation with Erza and Natsu to Happy, and not long after he arrived, him and Gray started a fight, which ended up involving majority of the guild, except for Juvia and Gajeel who were sitting together in the corner.

"You going to explain things to me now?" Gajeel asked, sounding more irritated than he intended it too.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Things are finally about to heat up!**

 **How long can Gajeel last? Well you might just see soon enough.**

 **Please Rate and Review and thank you so much for reading!**


	8. Secrets Everywhere

"And because Juvia knows that Gajeel and Levy like each other, she decided to help." That was the end of the water mages overly lengthy explanation of what had been going on for about a week now, Gajeel blankly stared at her, he didn't exactly know how to take in this new information.

"Is Gajeel ok?" She asked and tilted her head slightly to the side.

"Yeah, fine." No he wasn't, he already knew that his feelings for the shrimp were mutual, but he had no idea that she'd actually manage to act upon them, to be honest, he found it really cute, the timing was just really bad.

"Since it's Gajeel's season, maybe you should return Levy's advances?" Juvia suggested, all she wanted was her friend to be happy, and love was a happy thing.

"Not a chance." His season had only lasted about a week now, he was at least going to make it through the month, then everything would go back to normal and he could ignore his feelings again.

"Why not?" Tilting her head once more, she tried looking for a change in his already stoic expression.

"I've got my reasons, alright." First the cat, now the rain woman, what was so interesting about his love life that the people around him wanted to mess around in it.

"Juvia knows that you have your reasons." She began. "But Juvia also knows that avoiding your feelings will just make the rain fall harder."

"What are you talkin' about?" He raised a pierced brow, he really wasn't in the mood to get all deep and philosophical.

"Gajeel blames himself for what happened during the Phantom war, and rightfully so." She sighed. "And Juvia isn't without blame either, but Juvia learned to forgive herself as her guildmates have done for both her and Gajeel." She looked down at the table in front of her. "Maybe Gajeel should do that to and try to attain that what he wants."

Of course it would all come down to their former guild, the dragon slayer admitted that he had done some questionable things for Phantom, and he had done and things to Fairy Tail during his time there. But he wasn't so hung up on all that any more, what bothered him the most is how the image of Team Shadow Gear crucified against that tree, Levy herself having the Phantom Lord guild mark painted on her abdomen, haunted him.

When Gajeel didn't answer, she stood up. "Juvia will keep helping Levy, so Gajeel better be prepared, because now she's going to be going all out." With a wink, she was heading back to the table where the girls were still seated.

The Iron dragon slayer knew that he was in for it this time, Juvia wasn't someone to half ass something in the first place, but he knew to fear her full blown determination and her determination to help the shrimp was going to bite him hard and he'd probably like it. Now all he could do was hope for the best and that he wouldn't give in to the short mages adorable charms.

* * *

"I wonder what they were talking about…" Levy pondered, Juvia had just suddenly left to talk to Gajeel, then he left the guildhall with Natsu and Wendy for a little. It was a little odd to say the least.

"Don't know, but she's coming back so let's just ask her." Cana chuckled softly, it wasn't like the short mage was jealous, but worry was obviously edged across her face so something had been on her mind the moment Juvia rushed over to the dragon slayer.

"Sorry for rushing away like that." The water mage apologized as she sat back down in her spot.

"It's alright." Lucy smiled at her friend. "What was it all about though? We're all rather curious."

"Yeah, for rushing off like that all of a sudden, we at least deserve to know a little, don't ya think?" Cana coaxed her to tell them all.

"Juvia just figured something out." It wasn't her place to tell others about this, but she knew that the two mages pining for their respective dragon slayers would need to know at some point.

"And?" It was Levy who asked this time, she really wanted to know what she had figured out that made her rush as she did.

"And it's up to Gajeel and Natsu to tell." She just had to play it cool and try her best not to give in and tell them everything that she knew, but Gajeel was her oldest friend, and she couldn't break his trust like that.

"Boooooooring." Cana exclaimed. "Come on, can't you tell us a little bit?" She tried to coax her once more.

"Oh look, Gray's here, Juvia's going to say hello." She couldn't take it any longer, she had to get away before she would cave and spill all that she knew about the dragon seasons, not that it was much in the first place, Gajeel wasn't exactly known for being the most talkative of people. Plus her Gray was over there and she hadn't said hello yet, maybe she should try getting a date this time, they'd never been on a date before.

The other three girls were left at their table as Juvia made her way over to the love of her life as she would call it, all they could do was watch her leave and see how the interaction between them would go this time. Cana groaned after she was gone, she really wanted to know more but they were left without being anywhere near the topic of the former phantom mages conversation.

"Maybe it was just something between the two of them, they are friends after all…" Levy suggested, despite the closeness of the guild members and that they usually didn't keep many out of the loop, she knew that it was just as important to have some conversations stay private.

"We shouldn't pry." Lucy added.

"I know, I know, but I have a feeling that Juvia knows something that could be very helpful to our little plan." Cana said as she looked at the water mage who was talking about something with the Ice mage.

"She said it was up to the boys to tell us, so we could just ask them later." The shortest mage then suggested, she couldn't help but be curious, but she wasn't as desperate to know as the card mage was.

"That's true." There was a short pause "You guys should go to them now." Cana all but demanded.

"What?" Lucy asked. "Cana, no. I've barely had any time away from Natsu, and as much as I like him, I need to stay away for a little bit, alright. I'll ask him later."

"Jet and Droy are coming back today, and I want to greet them when they get here." Levy said.

"I understand Lucy's excuse, but when are the boys coming?" The card mage asked.

"...This afternoon, according to Mira." She half mumbled, knowing that since it was just barely noon, Cana would try getting her to ask Gajeel before her boys arrived.

"Well you got a couple of hours or so, you could ask him?" The dark haired mage didn't sound as persistent as Levy had believed she would, she still did suggest that she go ask him, so at least she was right about that. "I'm not gonna force you to go you know, I'm not that mean."

A sigh of relief was heard from the solid script mage, she did want to know, but despite her almost insatiable curiosity, she was a little nervous about this specific bit of information, as if it was something too personal. "Thank you, Cana."

Time passed as normal, the guildhall was bustling, a few fights started and ended, and people ate their lunch in an energetic environment. The dragon slayers were all hyper aware of what was going on around them, though the two who were in season were mainly focusing on a single person each. Those two were oblivious to the attention they were getting and were busy talking to each other about menial things and stuff that had happened to them at some point of time.

* * *

"And there we were, Jet hanging upside down with no pants, Droy still stuck in the barrel with a live squirrel and I was hiding right under a moldy patio, it smelled disgusting." Levy continued her story.

"Then what?" Lucy barely managed to get out between laughs.

"Turned out that the blue man was the man who sent out the request and he had just eaten a weird mushroom that turned his skin blue and swelled up his tongue." The short mage laughed, it had been an intriguing mission to say the least.

"You'd think people would know not eat mushrooms they found somewhere." Cana said in between laughs.

"Some people will never learn." The blonde said while still laughing.

"Just like you two." The dark haired mage grinned while pointing at the other two mages at the table.

"Where are you going with this?" Levy deadpanned.

"Well you two both know Gajeel and Natsu decently, you both talk to them comfortably, yet you guys keep getting nervous, well Levy does." She then pointed at Lucy "You on the other hand refuse to flirt with Natsu despite knowing that he's seen you naked."

"It's not the same!" The celestial mage shouted, she couldn't help the blush that reddened her face.

"I'm not saying it is, hun." The card mage said. "If he saw you naked and nothing changed between you two, it's a good sign."

"She's got a point." Levy added in.

"I guess…" She was defeated, so all she could do was puff out her cheeks and put on her best grumpy face, despite being confident in her figure and knowing that Natsu had seen her naked more times that she could count, somehow simply flirting seemed to be going too far for her.

Not long after that the doors to the guild hall burst open and in came two well known mages "We're back!" Jet and Droy shouted in unison.

"Jet! Droy!" Levy called back and ran over to her childhood friends to greet them. The eagerly greeted their short friend, giving her a tight hug and lifting her off the ground.

Gajeel tried his best not to growl.

"Why didn't you guys tell me you were leaving?!" Getting right to the point, she half scolded her boys.

"Uhm, well, we just...uh.." Droy tried to tell her.

"It was a last minute decision! The mission was about to be pulled off the board and we couldn't wait to let you know!" Jet said quickly, hoping that the short mage would buy their little lie.

"Is that so?" She raised a brow at her two friends. "Well alright then."

Both of the boys let out a breath that they hadn't even noticed they were holding in, the blue haired mage looked at them curiously, she knew they were hiding something but she trusted them to tell her in their own time.

"You two have been gone for two weeks now, we have things to talk about." She turned around after she had said that and made her way to their usual table, debating with herself if she should tell them what she was trying to do.

"She seems to have bought it." Jet whispered to the bigger of the two.

"But for how long, Levy's really smart and we can't hide this from her forever." Droy whispered back.

"Good thing that we only need to keep it a secret for a few months." The red haired mage began "We're gonna give her that book for Christmas, so we just need to play it cool until then."

The two of them joined their former crush at their table and the three of them told each other what had been happening for the past two weeks, Levy tried her best to not mention the seduction plan to them just yet, she knew that they'd freak out at first. She also knew that they would support her eventually, so she would just have to wait for the right time to tell them.

"What kind of mission was it anyway?" Levy asked, it had been bothering her that she had no idea what kind of mission it was, and it had taken them two weeks after all, so it must have been something interesting.

"Just a rescue mission." Droy answered "It took us a while to find him, but eventually we found him."

"How come Mira knew you'd be back in a week then?" She couldn't help but notice the little hole in their story.

"Oh that? Well we found him after the first week, we just had to wait a few days before we could go into the hideout to get him." Jet began "They had a pretty tight security, but we found out that they have meetings each Wednesday, so we had to wait a bit." He explained.

"Who was he? The man you had to rescue." She then asked.

"Who? Well he was a collector, he had some important ties." They weren't going to tell her kind of collector he was, if they did, she might figure out the real reason why they left so suddenly, thankfully the shorter mage didn't ask any more questions about that specific subject.

More time passed as the trio talked some more, eventually they decided to find a restaurant somewhere in town to eat. Levy was the one being treated by the boys, a somewhat of an apology for not letting her know that they had left without her. Somehow Lucy had been dragged into it as well thanks to the blue haired mage.

They had picked a simple place that mainly sold burgers, none of them had really been in the mood for anything other than fast food. Since they didn't have to wait long, they got back to talking soon after they had arrived, Levy felt like it was time for her to tell them about the seduction plan, which is why she had to convince Lucy to come with her as support.

They sat down with their food close to an open window, the wind didn't blow in through it so it just brought the group some fresh air.

"I need to tell you guys something." Levy began, somehow it was making her a little nervous but they were her best friends, they'd support her in this.

Lucy took over then "Cana and Juvia convinced us to start this, seduction plan." She had noticed the nervousness in Levy "And it's been going on for about a week now."

"A seduction plan?" One of them asked, both of them getting some interesting images of Levy in certain outfits in their head, though they quickly had to shake them off.

"Yeah, Lucy's going for Natsu." Levy said before taking a deep breath "And I'm going for Gajeel." Now all she could do was wait for their reactions.

It took them a minute to register what they had just heard "What?!" They shouted in unison.

"I know you guys are probably against it and all, but you're my best friends and I just want you guys to support me in this and-" She was then cut off by Jet.

"Against it? No, Levy, yeah we don't like him much and all that, but we're not against it." He said. "We're just worried, is all."

"He is kind of a dick….a huge dick." Droy added. "We noticed that you had feelings for him when you all came back from Tenrou."

"You did?" Somehow everyone had noticed except her.

"But I've been wondering though, what's so special about him?" The red haired man asked, it was a question that had been on his mind for some time.

"I'm really curious too." The celestial mage wondered.

"Well...I." She looked at her half eaten burger, a slight blush starting to fade in on her cheeks. "He's nicer than he looks, kind of a teddy bear, really." She laughed before continuing. "And he's loyal and sweet and though he may not show it, he's somewhat emotionally vulnerable, he has changed so much since he joined..." She thought about all the times he had saved her, she also thought about the iron she made for him, it was normal for her solid script to looks stylised and cutesy, but the heart in the 'o' had been intentional.

Her thoughts went to the Grand Magic Games, the memories of the state he had been in the fight against Rogue during the last day, they still stung like the memories from Tenrou, when she had to leave him. Her expression shifted to a more bittersweet one without her noticing, but the other three did, Lucy being the one who could somewhat guess why.

"Well someone's quite smitten." The blonde teased the short mage to try shifting her mood a bit.

"What?!" Red started tinting her cheeks more noticeably now. "I just answered the question, alright! And it's only fair that you tell us why you like Natsu so much!"

"Wha-? I….damn you're right." Lucy was defeated. "He's loyal, determined...really determined, fiercely loyal, he always helps everyone, no matter what, he's also helped me out so many times before, even emotionally." It was now her turn to blush. "Not to mention he's kind of hot, figuratively and literally." They all laughed at that, which helped ease the mood a bit.

The conversation topic stayed on that for a short while longer until the girls couldn't go on any longer and forcefully changed the subject over to something else. Though it was still stuck on their mind, and it would be for some time.

* * *

Gajeel had watched Shadow Gear plus Lucy leaving the guild, and he knew that he wasn't the only one who was doing so very intently. Trying to keep his mind off of the short blue haired mage, he decided to move his attention over to one of the other blue haired girls in his life. Juvia was still hanging around Gray after she had left the other girls earlier, since that would be boring to watch, he started scanning the hall for something interesting, all the exceeds were talking together about something he didn't care about, but then he heard some noise, like something was being gently knocked against wood. Looking for the origin of the sound, he ended up staring and Natsu, who was obviously shaking his leg out of agitation.

With a sigh, Gajeel gave up on the guild hall and decided it was time to just go home, before leaving he caught Lily's attention who simply nodded, knowing that he was going home. It wasn't long until Natsu left too and followed after his fellow Dragon Slayer.

Gajeel opted on taking the alleys instead of the main road, he wanted to avoid as much confrontation as he could. But he could sense the Fire dragon slayer coming after him so his lone walk home would be interrupted for the time being and he was not happy about it.

"What do you want, Salamander?" He asked when he knew that Natsu was closer.

"Nothing just, damn it." He sighed. "Ok fine, We're both going through our seasons so we're gonna have to help each other out."

As much as the taller of the two didn't want to admit it, Natsu was right. "Yeah, cuz it's just gonna get worse from here on out…" Up until the last few days at least.

"How much worse?" The pink haired slayer asked.

"Don't know, just gonna get worse." He'd never had someone like Levy around during this time so this was all very new to him and that worried him more than he wanted to admit.

"Well that's useful." The fire dragon said sarcastically before they started moving again, both trying to keep a bit of a distance between them.

"Well I'm not the one who forgot when my season was coming up!" Gajeel retaliated.

"At least I'm not avoiding someone and making them feel bad." Natsu said quietly.

"What was that?" He had heard him, but he had to ask, it's not like he wanted to make Levy feel bad, it was just something that happened on it's own.

"Wait, shut up." The fire dragon hushed the taller one.

"Don't ignore m-." Then he sensed it, the sweet aroma of old books and ink and something undoubtedly Levy, with her were her fanboys and the bunny girl and they were talking about something.

The two dragon slayers listened intently to their conversation, the knew that eavesdropping wasn't the best thing to do, but they weren't fully themselves during this time. As they listened, they heard that they had arrived and the burger joint not to long ago, and that they were talking about some plan.

"Seduction plan?" Natsu whispered before Gajeel shushed him.

Then they heard it, the reasons why the girls liked them, why they had fallen for them and both of the dragon slayers just stood there, staring at the direction of their voices. Gajeel already knew that Levy recuperated his feelings, yet it had taken him up until this moment to really accept it. Natsu on the other hand had no idea that Lucy liked him the same way he liked her, but this revelation gave him an idea, and one that he would hopefully not regret later on.

"Luce thinks I'm hot." The silence was broken by the pink haired mage.

"Out of everything, you focus on that?" Gajeel questioned with a raised brow.

"She thinks I'm hot!" He said loudly, making the Iron dragon slayer grab over his mouth and drag him away.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Not much happening this chapter because I'm still setting things up, but it's just starting, so no worries there**

 **Thank you for reading! And please rate and review!**


	9. Revelations

It had been a couple of days since the two dragon slayers overheard the girls talking and now for some reason, every dragon slayer in Fairy Tail was in Gajeel's kitchen. Wendy wanted to talk to Sting, Rogue and Cobra as well but it had been a bit harder contacting them, so she'd have to do with the three boys and her.

"Thank you for letting us talk about this here, Gajeel." The youngest dragon slayer said.

"Well it's not like there was much of a choice." Gajeel replied, his place was the only one that would fit all of them and they were less likely to be interrupted by someone.

"Why are we here again?" Natsu asked while cringing his nose due to the home owner's scent.

"Well we already know that it's yours and Gajeel's seasons." Wendy began. "And we already know that you two agreed to help each other out, but I thought it would be best if every dragon slayer helped, since there aren't that many of us."

"And why do I need to be a part of this?" Laxus finally asked.

"Well, because we don't know if the second generation goes into season too." She explained.

"You'd think he would notice something like that." The fire dragon slayer pointed out.

"You didn't." Gajeel remarked.

"I was a little preoccupied metalbr-" Wendy stopped him before he could finish.

"Please don't argue!" She got in between the two before anything could start. "Please!"

They glared at each other for a while before they both took a deep breath and decided against fighting, Gajeel mainly because he didn't want to destroy his kitchen and Natsu knew that he had to get some help so he'd put fighting the iron dragon slayer on hold for now.

"Can we get to the point already?" Laxus said irritatedly.

"Of course." The sky dragon slayer said with a sigh "Gajeel, could you please explain everything?"

"Why me?" He asked.

"Because you seem to know the most about this stuff, so, I thought it would be best." The lone female dragon slayer said while scratching her head.

"Fine." He sighed before he started speaking again. "I don't remember everything, so don't expect too much from me."

"Just get on with it." The blond huffed.

"Every other year for a whole month, Dragon slayers go through their season." He began.

"We know that already." Natsu interrupted.

"Let me speak, damn it!" Gajeel snapped. "Normally we don't act much different alright, yeah we get a bit more aggressive and territorial."

"Like actual dragons?" Wendy asked.

"Yes." If they kept interrupting him, he'd never finish. "But when around our mate, so to speak, things get worse."

"Worse how?" This time it was Laxus who asked.

"We get possessive, clingy, possibly more aggressive, we might start presenting them with shiny objects, things like that." He listed. "Brain to mouth filter might get fucked up." He finally said, remembering his own experiences of that.

"That all? That's not so bad." The pink haired slayer said with a positive attitude.

"That's just the beginning kid." Gajeel said. "Clinginess can evolve into horniness and so on and so forth, it just gets worse up until the last couple of days and we're just about half way through with our own seasons."

"Oh." Was all that Natsu said.

"You said this happens every other year, right?" Laxus asked with the other three dragon slayers all nodding to answer his question, making him sigh. "It happens to me too, then, nothing nearly as serious as you make it out to be though."

"Maybe it doesn't affect the second generation as strongly." Wendy suggested. "It makes sense, right?"

"Yeah, it does." Gajeel agreed.

"I was wondering about the shiny object thing." Natsu began. "Why do we do it?" He asked.

"No idea." Was the answer he received from the iron dragon slayer.

"You think it could have something to do with the proposal thing?" The youngest slayer asked.

"Proposal thing?" The lightning dragon slayer asked, a lot of this was very new to him.

"Oh, Dragons propose to each other by finding the perfect rock or jewel for their significant other." Wendy explained to him. "I think Dragon Slayers get an urge to do it too."

"So I've been getting the uncontrollable urge to give Lucy these shiny spoons, because I like her?" Natsu wanted to confirm it, he couldn't help but find it weird, he just couldn't help it.

Gajeel couldn't help but snort at that, he himself had been getting urges to give Levy a few shiny things he had found or wanted to make, though spoons never crossed his mind and frankly, it was hilarious. Though him snorting didn't exactly please the fire dragon slayer and they ended up glaring at each other for a good few minutes.

"We know that it's going to get worse, right?" Wendy wanted to confirm, mainly to avert their attention to something else.

"Yeah." Gajeel said after he stopped glaring at Natsu. "But I don't know much more than that."

"So we should make sure that we don't do anything stupid, right?" The fire dragon slayer asked, it was the most logical thing, not that he was much for logic.

"That's right." Wendy confirmed.

"Can I go now?" Laxus's hand was covering his face in irritation, he did thank them for the new information about what came with being a dragon slayer, but he knew that those two would be at each other's throats majority of the time and he just wanted to be gone before something broke and he'd be dragged into it.

"Yes, now all of you get out of my house!" Gajeel couldn't take it anymore, he wasn't much for having guests unless he actually liked the people, and though he didn't mind Wendy and him and the lightning slayer had some respect for each other, but Natsu on the other hand was a whole different story.

Thankfully that was enough to get them all to leave, the fire dragon slayer practically bolted through the door, but the other two were more calm about it, so at least nothing got destroyed, just a few scorch marks the iron dragon slayer would have to try and get rid of.

"Thank you for letting us talk here, Gajeel." Wendy thanked him before leaving the quaint house at the edge of town, and running to catch up with a certain blond.

"Laxus, wait!" She called after she caught sight of him. "I want to ask you something."

"What is it?" The taller blond asked.

"Well, I was wondering." She hesitated slightly, her question could be rather personal depending on the answer. "How come you were so sure? About the seasons, that is…"

The lightning dragon slayer raised a brow at the younger mages question, it wasn't exactly something he had expected. But it was a valid question, since it seemed that none of them knew exactly what to expect.

"Because I think I found my mate." He simply answered, he recognised some of the urges that they mentioned, and it made sense since he only seemed to get them every other year or so.

"Oh?" Wendy blushed slightly and started fidgeting with her fingers "Can I ask who it is?"

"Oh sorry, I don't want to be nosey or anything." She waved her hands frantically in front of her, she was just curious and she asked without thinking much before hand. Charle would probably have scolded her by now, but they had left their exceeds just in case.

"It's Mirajane." He stated, unlike the other two, he didn't have stubbornness issues and could actually admit his feelings.

"It is?" She asked, it was surprising, but at the same time, it wasn't, so she mentally slapped herself for asking that without thinking. "I hope she likes you back, I mean." She corrected herself.

Laxus just smiled as the two ended up walking together to the guildhall, Wendy doing most of the talking on the way and asking a few questions about both him and the thunder god tribe. No one could deny that she was a curious one, but she was a kid, but an incredibly smart one at that, so she knew what topics to avoid.

* * *

"Erza, a letter arrived for you this morning." Kinana called out to the scarlet haired mage as she entered through the guild hall doors.

"Why here?" She asked the waitress as she handed her the letter.

"I don't know, it was here when I arrived." She answered before she had to go back to waiting tables, the hall was rather crowded that day.

"How strange." She said to herself before heading to the table where Lucy, Levy, Cana and Juvia were sitting. She sat down and placed the letter in front of her, looking at the fine handwriting that made her name.

"Any idea who sent the letter?" Cana asked almost the moment Erza sat down.

"I won't know until I open it." She said as she kept looking at the letter.

"You think it could be a secret admirer." Levy nudged the requip mage as she wiggled her eyebrows.

Erza's mind went straight to Ichiya, and she shuddered at the thought of him starting to send her love letters, she could only handle so much from him. He seriously creeped her out, but he had never sent her letters before so she would just hope that he hadn't started and opened the envelope.

"Oh, it's from Jellal." She noticed after she had pulled out the letter, he rarely sent her letters but the few times he did, it was always the same kind of paper so she would always know.

"He has some horrible handwriting." Cana remarked as she leaned over to see what it said on the letter.

"Seems like he spilled ink all over it too." Lucy noticed from the other side.

"Is he in danger?" Juvia asked worriedly.

"No, he's fine, it's magical paper." She began and asked Mirajane for a candle as she passed. "You write on it with hot ink and when it cools, it smudges up or becomes an ink blot and then when you apply heat to it again, it becomes readable."

After Mira arrived with the candle and Erza started heating up the paper, Levy got an idea. She remembered the book on Dragon Slayers she found in the restricted section of the library, it had been infused with magic that just seemed to flow out for no reason, maybe it had something to do with magical paper.

"Lucy, I need you to come with me." She said as she stood up in a hurry. "It's important."

"What?" Lucy said before she was pulled up by her shorter friend "Ok."

Levy dragged her confused friend through the streets of Magnolia until they reached the library. The librarian welcomed them both but only earned a quick hello from both of them before they rushed into the restricted section.

The shorter mage went over the shelves to find the book that practically hypnotised her a few weeks ago, somehow it seemed to not want to be found this time. It took her a while longer until she found the book and placed it on the table that Lucy had decided to stay at while Levy looked.

"This is it." The lock was still broken so she wouldn't have to deal with that this time. "I hope I'm right."

"I hope so too, it would be great to know more about this." Lucy added. "But we're gonna need some heat."

"Let me" Levy said before she used her solid script to make a candle and to light it. "We should try not to burn it."

"That would be preferable." Lucy laughed.

The two held the book over the light flames for a good while until it was getting rather hot to the touch and they set it down on the table. Levy's hunch was correct, the incredibly messy writing and inkblots went away to only reveal more messy writing, though at least it was a little more readable this time.

"Well that didn't change much…" The solid script mage said with a sigh.

"It's still something right?" Lucy tried to be positive. "Maybe we should check out the last page, the one with the month thing?"

"Alright." Levy agreed and started flipping through the book until she landed on the formerly ink blot covered page now revealed no blots and not that much writing. "Better start reading then."

Both of them carefully read over it's text, taking in it's content as best as they could as it explained a lot about how their dragon slayers were acting. Neither of them could properly process what they were discovering, though they were taking this new information in two different ways.

"So we're their mates?" Lucy asked the short mage just to be sure she read it right.

"I gotta go." She hurried out of the library before Lucy could stop her and ignored her calls that inevitable got shushed not long after.

Lucy apologized to the librarian before she went back to the book, trying to figure out what had made her friend so upset. The blonde was actually kind of happy about the new information, it filled her with determination and she thought it to finally be time to wear the sexy night lingerie. But first she'd need to find Levy.

* * *

Back at the guildhall, things were going as normal, minus two dragon slayers with some temper issues and so a little less fights, but normal nonetheless. Cana was drinking everyone under table, Juvia was fawning over Gray, Nab was at the request board, just a somewhat normal day.

"Has anyone seen Levy?" Lucy asked as she burst through the doors, effectively ending the normal day.

"Not since you two left, why?" Mirajane answered for everyone.

"She seemed upset earlier and I haven't seen her since." The blonde explained, she didn't want to tell them about the book, not yet at least.

"Maybe she went to Gajeel's." Cana laughed suggestively.

"Speak of the devil." Pantherlily remarked as the iron dragon slayer entered through the doors.

"Gajeel, have you seen Levy?" Lucy asked, trying not to sound to worried.

"No, I haven't." Gajeel answered, a hint of worry starting to creep over him.

"What happened to make her so upset?" Jet and Droy said in unison, both of them sounding very worried.

"We were reading this book, and she suddenly rushed out for no apparent reason." She explained to them, still not wanting to tell them what they had read.

"What book?" The studded slayer asked, sounding more irritated than he would have liked.

"It was about…" Lucy hesitated. "..Dragon slayers…"

Gajeel's eyes widened in realization, somehow, there was a book that actually had something about the seasons and it had scared her off like he knew would happen. "I know where she is." Was all he said before he rushed through the doors.

Once Gajeel had left, most everyone had calmed down from their initial shock, it mainly took Jet and Droy longer to calm down since they cared for the short mage deeply. It also took Lucy a little longer to calm down since she felt like she had missed something, something that she should have noticed. But she trusted Gajeel so she would just have to believe that everything would turn out fine.

"Has Natsu come in today?" Lucy asked Mirajane to try and get her mind off of what had happened.

"Earlier today yes, but then he left with Wendy, Gajeel and Laxus." Mirajane explained. "He hasn't come in since."

"Alright." So either her was at her place or his, and if he was at hers, then she had a perfect plan, this time she was going to make the fire dragon slayer an offer he could not resist.

* * *

Gajeel ran through the streets of Magnolia, heading straight for the park, he remembered what she had said about the tree, that she went there when she wanted to be alone. His head was telling him, screaming at him to not find her, but right now his head wasn't in control and all he really wanted to do was be sure that she was safe.

When he finally started seeing the autumn coloured leaves he picked up the pace a little, he was so close to the one place he had been trying his best to avoid ever since he joined the guild. Right now it was where he wanted to be the most, he needed to know that she was there and she was safe and sound.

"Shrimp.." he said in an almost whisper, he had reached that tree where the short blue haired mage was sitting at the trunk and hugging her knees. "I.."

"Why didn't you tell me?" She interrupted him.

"Because I.." Somehow he felt like his reason was really stupid now and it was hard for him to tell her.

The wind picked up suddenly, making him notice just how damn cold it was. "You should start dressing according to the weather, shrimp." He said, taking in the fact that she was wearing a miniskirt and a tank top. "You're gonna get sick."

"Don't avoid the question Gajeel." She said and stood up, her hands balled up into fists at her sides.

"I'll tell ya if ya go inside, alright." He rubbed the bridge of his nose, somewhat trying to get his head together after the rush from his instincts earlier.

"Fine." She huffed after glaring at him for a short while.

Gajeel sighed before he threw his jacket over her, he was starting to feel cold on her behalf. They started walking towards the first place they could think of, which incidentally was Gajeel's house, much to his chagrin.

"So why didn't you tell me?" She asked again. "Don't you trust me?"

"Is that why you're so upset?" He asked her back with a slight chuckle.

"What's so funny?" She puffed out her cheeks in irritation.

"Of course I trust you, Levy." He sighed. "It's just that…"

"Just what?" She interrupted him again.

"Let me finish." The iron dragon slayer began. "I knew it would scare you off." He said while looking at anything but her.

"Scare me away, why would it scare me away?" Levy questioned.

"Because." Gajeel started. "I dunno."

They were getting really close to the dragon slayers home and the situation wasn't getting any less awkward for either of them. Both had a lot of questions but were hesitant to ask them.

"You don't know?" Levy repeated after him, neither of them said much after that and walked the rest of the way in silence.

"Did you get so upset because you thought I didn't trust you?" He asked her once they got inside, it had been bothering him for a while and he needed to know.

"No...yes...partly." Levy answered nervously.

"Partly?" He inquired, now he needed to know what else had made her so upset.

"You see, there was this plan, and oh god I was such an idiot." She couldn't continue, it was to embarrassing for her to explain it.

"You talking about the seduction plan?" He asked with a raised brow, wondering why that made her upset.

"You knew?!" Now she felt even more like an idiot.

"Juvia told me." Gajeel explained while scratching the back of his head. "After she figured out it was my season, that is."

"I'm so sorry." Levy apologized, trying to contain her nervous laughter the best she could.

"Why are you apologizing?" The taller of the two asked, her laugh causing him to join her.

Levy couldn't answer her due to her nervous laugh which eventually ended up being a laughing fit for both of them, neither really knowing why the whole thing was so funny, but neither minded it. They liked to hear each other's laughs, and maybe things would be a little easier from now on.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **Sorry for the wait, I wanted to have it done before Friday but my mom came to visit and so I didn't have much time to write because of it.  
But things are about to get hot ;) So be prepared for some smut very soon.**


	10. Truth for Everyone

When Lucy got home, her apartment was empty for once, but she had a plan and she was going to follow through with it. Her biggest issue would be if Natsu wouldn't show up tonight, or if he'd show up with Happy, meaning her plan could still fail miserably.

"Maybe I shouldn't..." She slapped herself before she finished that sentence "No, I'm gonna do this."

She decided to run a bath first, and hopefully when she walked out, her pink haired dragon slayer would be there. She brought the red night lingerie with her into the bathroom and neatly placed it on the counter for her to wear when she was out and dry. She had good feelings about this, after all, she'd gotten it to get a rise out of Natsu, not that it was up to her at the time.

The soapy water was almost overflowing when she entered the bath, the water caressing her naked body, making her let out a pleased sigh. The blonde certainly did love taking a bath, it was relaxing and it made her feel at peace, it surely helped get her mind off of things that were stressing her out or making her nervous.

"Hey Luce, you home?!" Lucy heard from behind the door, it was Natsu which didn't surprise her in the least, what did make her wonder though, was the fact that he had called out. It did annoy her a little that he had done it, since she had just been in there for a few minutes and she was just about to get comfortable.

"I'm in the bath!" She called back, her eyes widened in shock as she remembered that she hadn't locked the door. "I'll be out in a minute, ok!"

"Could you hurry up." He looked at the floor and mumbled. "I need to tell you something."

"Just wait!" She shouted irritably. She stood up quickly, splashing water all over the floor, her body dripping wet with bits of soap still clinging to her.

"It's really important ok." He called back through the door, he was obviously standing closer to it since his words were clearer than before.

"What is?" She asked through the door as she quickly dried herself with the towel.

"The thing I need to tell you." He replied.

Lucy sighed, she knew how impatient he could be sometimes so she decided against dressing herself and instead just wrapped the towel around her body, it wasn't like he'd never seen her like that. She couldn't help but hesitate when she reached the door, she had decided to confess her feelings after all.

Natsu waited for her to open the door. He had heard her walk over to it and knew that she hesitated opening it. He took a deep breath as the doorknob turned and the practically naked blonde came into view, making him blush slightly and have some indecent thoughts.

"So what is it?" She asked, not noticing the shade of Natsu's cheeks.

"I..I….uhm, so." He took another deep breath, somehow this was getting really hard for him due to the body that was in front of him. "So dragon slayers go through this...thing and it's kinda a mating thing and, I..you….yeah."

"I know." Lucy said simply, looking down to hide the blush that was creeping on to her cheeks.

"I know it sounds, wait, you know?" The pink haired mage asked curiously. "How?"

"You see, Levy and I found a book about Dragon Slayers." She began. "And it explained a few things, like why you've been bringing me spoons."

"I can't control myself, ok." And he was about to lose control of himself in other ways if she didn't put on any clothes.

"...You brought more spoons didn't you…" She deadpanned.

"Don't tell Gajeel." He said as he pulled a handful of shiny spoons out of his pockets.

Lucy wanted to be angry and yell at him, but all she could do was laugh at Natsu's nervousness. She found it cute how he awkwardly placed them down on the table by the sofa and ran his hand through his hair as if he was somewhat embarrassed.

Natsu couldn't take it anymore, her cute laugh was driving him crazy and when he looked back at her after he had placed the spoons down, he saw her smile. To him, her smile could light up the whole world, he had seen her smile many times before, yet somehow he had never noticed just how much he adored it.

"Screw it." He whispered to himself before he quickly made his way over to the girl of his dreams and kissed her, his hands cupping her cheeks to give him better access.

Lucy was taken by surprised when his lips touched hers but once the initial shock wore off, she didn't hesitate kissing him back. His lips felt warm, almost like the rest of his body, but this time, it was as if his warmth was making them melt together. Even if it was just a simple closed mouth kiss, but it was their first kiss and it made them feel something new and wonderful.

He reluctantly pulled away from her, taking in her flushed cheeks and half lidded eyes, her beautiful brown irises shining through her long eyelashes. How he had never noticed how long her eyelashes were was a mystery to him. He stared at her for a while, taking in every bit of her face that he had failed to notice before.

"Natsu?" She asked, wondering why he hadn't said anything, it was making her think that she was a horrible kisser. "Sorry."

"Sorry for what?" He asked, not moving his hands from her face.

"I don't know, why'd ya kiss me!?" She crossed her arms, effectively reminding herself that she was only wearing a towel, making her blush even harder.

"I don't know, because I wanted to?" His hands went down to her shoulders, he wanted to kiss her again, to feel her soft lips again and it was getting harder for him to resist now that he had gotten a taste.

"Well, why'd you want to?" It was a stupid question and she knew it, but she wanted him to do it again, she wanted more.

"Because I like you." He said, his cheeks almost matching his hair by now.

Lucy knew that she would have to be more direct, if she didn't, maybe she wouldn't get that which she wanted.

"Kiss me." She couldn't wait any longer, and neither could he, so he leaned back in, accidentally bumping their noses before he moved slightly, and kissed her once more, this time with more fervor. Neither of them were experienced kissers, so it was awkward and somewhat sloppy and they weren't exactly sure what to do with their hands, Natsu's were still resting on Lucy's shoulders, while hers were flat against his chest.

Due to his lack of personal experience, Natsu had to rely on what he had been told over the years about what to do and what not to. He slowly moved his arms down passed her own and grabbed her waist, pulling her closer to him, she in turn wrapped her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss even more.

They stayed like that for a while longer, Natsu's own body heat beginning to rise to the point that Lucy was really starting to feel it. She pulled away from him and they looked at each other with hooded eyes, neither one of them letting go of the other. It was at that moment that Lucy's towel got loose and fell down onto the floor, her eyes widened with embarrassment and her face reddened, making the tips of her ears look like two fresh cherries.

She was about to cover herself with her arms when something stopped them from moving.

Natsu had grabbed her wrists instinctively.

"Don't…." He whispered, looking at her still wide eyes.

"You undress too then." She managed to get out, her face still burning from the obvious blush, but she didn't want to be the only one that was naked.

"Help me." Natsu said quickly without thinking, a blush creeping up on him once he realised what he had just asked her too.

After Lucy had registered what he had said, she gingerly moved her hands down to his belt where his hands were still loosely around her wrists, she dropped it on the floor once she had unbuckled it. Moving away from that area, her fingers traveled up, gently stroking along the orange hem that hid the zipper. As her fingers went higher, Natsu let go of her wrists making it easier for her to move beneath his scarf to locate the tab and pulled down, revealing his tan chest to her.

She trailed over the defined lines, down his chest to his abdomen with her delicate digits, she stopped right above his waistband, not daring to go any further just yet. Instead she moved back up and began pulling off his jacket, which he helped slip off of himself, letting it drop onto the floor along with his belt.

Natsu felt as if he was burning up from the inside, each of her touches felt as if liquid fire was coming from her fingertips. It was a new sensation, a sensation he needed more of, and the slow pace was driving him crazy, but it was his season, he'd have to try keep his cool as long as he could. Albeit he was at his limit, he needed to feel her, to touch her, to kiss her more, and the need was becoming insatiable.

One of Lucy's hands caressed the cross shaped scar at his side while the other carefully pulled at the waistband on his pants. Natsu groaned, trying to keep himself in check, he moved his hands to grab her shoulders tightly, trying to anchor himself down.

"Natsu?" Lucy said with a faint hint of worry in her voice.

"Just say stop ok?" Was all he said before he went back to kissing her, his hands moving from her shoulders down to her naked buttocks and picked her up. The whole thing caught her by surprise but she didn't hesitate to wrap her legs around his waist for added support. Her hands were back around his neck as their kiss deepened as Natsu slipped off his sandals and moved them to her bed.

As he was about to go onto the bed, he tripped and landed on top of Lucy, thankfully on the bed, he pushed himself up onto his elbows, making sure Lucy was alright. All she could do was laugh, which in turn made him laugh with her.

"So much for sexy." She said in between laughs, she would wholeheartedly admit that she was referencing her favourite romance novels, but who would blame her, she was new to this.

"I've never really done this before ok..." He said while trying his best to avoid eye contact with his nude partner.

"Neither have I." Lucy admitted, she found it rather reassuring that he was going in just as blind as she was. "Now take of your pants, I'm still the only naked one here." She managed to say with the boost of confidence the laughing gave her.

"Aye sir." Natsu said, imitating his blue partner that thankfully agreed to stay over at Wendy's for the night.

"Please don't ruin the mood." Lucy began laughing once more, covering her face as the dragon slayer stood up and began taking off the remaining clothing he was wearing, placing his treasured scarf over the headboard before he went back on top of her.

Lucy couldn't help but stare at his fully erect member, she felt herself get warmer down in the most intimate region of her body. She knew that she wasn't being subtle in the slightest, but despite the embarrassment she felt from it, it wasn't like it could get any worse after everything that had happened the past few minutes.

Natsu picked up the sudden spike in her scent, he had noticed the change come slowly at first, but after he had taken off his pants and revealed himself it was as if it hit his nose like a storm. Suddenly he felt as if his body wanted to take control and make her his, body and soul.

"We could do this later." He said, scratching the back of his head, he didn't want to bail, but he was scared that he'd hurt Lucy, and that was something he never wanted to do.

"You're kidding right?" Lucy raised a brow, propping herself up on her elbows. "Look if you don't want to do it, we can maybe do it some other time." She smiled, of course quitting now would make her very frustrated, but she had ways to deal with that on her own.

"No, I really want to." He began "It's just, I don't want to hurt you."

"Natsu, I want this, I want you." She said with a reassuring smile. "So come here and show me what you've got."

"Are you sure?" he was so sure that she wouldn't want to risk it, but he should have expected her not to back out, she was a Fairy Tail mage after all.

"Just come here and kiss me, Natsu Dickneel." It took her a second to realise what had just come out of her mouth, but when it hit her, her face went back to being red as a tomato.

Natsu tried his best to hold back a laugh but it was proving to be very difficult for him to manage.

"Don't laugh!" She yelled, a few giggles escaping her as well. "Just get over here." She said, her hands still covering her face.

"Don't mind if I do, Lucy _Hotfilia_." Natsu joked, still trying his best not to laugh as he crawled back on top of her.

"You're so lame." Lucy said with a soft giggle before she leaned up and gave her partner a peck on the nose. She then pulled his head down to press his forehead against hers. "Just make love to me."

Natsu didn't hesitate kissing her once more, moving from her lips to her chin and ended on her earlobe where he began nibbling on the soft flesh and tugging at it ever so lightly. This reignited the mood from earlier, and Natsu couldn't help himself from wanting a better taste of his companion.

He trailed soft kisses down her neck and to her collarbone where he stopped for a short while to leave his mark. While he kept his attention on the neck and collarbone, his hand traveled to one of her breasts and began massaging it gently. His actions earned him a moan from the wonderful girl beneath him and he was eager to get more out of her to the best of his ability.

"Use your other hand~"She murmured. "Touch me." She grabbed the sheets that were underneath her naked body as a way to help anchor herself down to the moment and not let her mind wander to the fact that she just might lose her virginity.

"As you wish." He drawled and moved his free hand down to her vulva, trying to remember all those times Cana had described her own sexcapades for reference.

With his limited knowledge, he began rubbing the sensitive region carefully, afraid that he would do something wrong. The shivers that he felt go through Lucy's body and her mewls told him that he was doing something right and so he went back to nibbling at her skin. He moved down from her collarbone to the free mound, pecking and sucking at the skin as he moved closer to the pert nipple.

Natsu was starting to feel dizzy from her scent, he needed more of her, her taste, her moans, and he needed to know what it felt like to be inside of her. Her spicy scent felt as if it was burning him, making it harder for him to keep the slow pace which his mind was telling him to go at, while his instincts were roaring at him to just take her right away.

It was harder for him to move away from the breast and up to her panting mouth, though the moment he kissed her, he didn't care. He plunged a finger inside of her, capturing her moan with the fervent kiss. He was almost at his limit, it was getting harder for him to keep his mind clear, trying to make sure that he wouldn't accidentally hurt her in any way due to the lack of control the season could cause.

"Luce." He reluctantly pulled his head away. "If you want to stop then-"

"For the love of, Natsu just fuck me!" She couldn't take it any longer, the foreplay was already dragging on and she was getting very excited to have her first time with the man she loved.

Natsu didn't hesitate to kiss Lucy passionately, his movements were fervid, adding a second finger inside her slick entrance and kneading her tit harder. The wait was becoming unbearable for him as he felt his erection practically throb. The noises Lucy made weren't making it any easier on him and when he pulled back once more to look her over, her lust filled eyes felt as if they would make him melt right then and there.

Neither could take it much longer, their hearts were pounding hard against their chests, the blood felt like liquid fire in their veins and they felt as if they would combust any at any second. Everything felt hot to them, and not because of Natsu's abnormally high body temperature for once.

"Can I?" Natsu asked, referring to his dick, his fingers still maneuvering around within her walls.

Lucy nodded, biting her lip in anticipation, her knuckles white from her tight grip on the sheets.

He removed his fingers from her sensitive walls, causing her to whimper from the loss of the stimulation they were providing her with. Out of curiosity, Natsu licked her fluids off of his fingers, finding the taste quite intoxicating.

He positioned himself so that his taut member was positioned between her pink folds, it took him a second to find the right place again, he wasn't exactly an expert when it came to this.

"You ready?" He asked, Lucy nodded, her eyes closed tight and unable to stop the smile from forming on her face. He slowly inserted his cock inside of her wet entrance, pushing it further in until he couldn't keep going. Somewhat nervous to move, he looked at Lucy, waiting for her to open her eyes once more to look at him.

"It's ok, Natsu." She gave him a reassuring smile and moved her arms around his neck to pull his face closer to hers. She pressed their foreheads together, still looking into his onyx eyes. "Please, move."

He obliged his partner, pulling out and then back inside once more, causing Lucy to inhale sharply. The feeling was invigorating for the dragon slayer, and the longer he was within her walls, the less he could keep himself in check. His pace quickened and his grunts began sounding somewhat animalistic while Lucy's moans filled the room.

Her blunt nails dug into his scalp and his back, his pace causing the feeling of pure bliss to rise gradually. The pleasure was rippling through her body with each one of his thrusts.

The heat rose around them and within them, each one of their touches lighting a fire inside that would only burn brighter. The heat felt as if it was collecting within in her core and was at the verge of exploding, she knew she was coming close.

"Natsu~" She purred, trying to let him know how close she was. It wasn't long after that until time seemed to slow down for her, it was an overwhelming feeling of tingles through her entire body, causing her to shout out her pleasure.

As she clenched around him as her orgasm pulsed through her, he felt as if he was burning on the inside but he knew he was close. It felt different though from when he took care of himself, it was much better, he couldn't really compare the two.

"Luce~" He groaned before he became undone, his dick deep within her as his orgasm went through him and she was riding the edges of her own.

Once the deed was done, he collapsed beside her, tired and incredibly happy, so much so that he couldn't contain the grin that spread across his face. Lucy turned to look at him as well, his grin causing her to smile brightly as well, the air around them was hot and smelled of sex and….something burning.

She looked away from her dragon slayer only to finally notice the blazing embers that were devouring her curtains. "Natsu!" She yelled.

"Huh, what?" He was still someone out of it, but he managed to follow Lucy's gaze to the flames, his flames.

"How did this happen?!" She was panicking, trying to find something she could fill with water.

"...I'm sorry." He apologized, he should have realised that his magic would get loose somehow.

"Just help me put it out!" She yelled some more, thankfully he did end up helping her and once the fire was out, they were back in bed, Lucy facing away from him in irritation.

"You owe me new curtains." She huffed.

"At least your apartment's alright." He smiled while playing with her golden locks.

"Yeah…" She snorted, as angry as she wanted to be, she couldn't help but find the whole situation funny. So she took a deep breath to calm herself and rolled over, a soft smile on her face to let him know that she wasn't pissed off at him.

They ended up cuddling, holding each other close and enjoying the others presence. Lucy ran her fingers through his messy pink hair while he had buried his nose in the crook of her neck.

They fell asleep in each others arms that night.

* * *

 **A/N:**

 **And finally, the smut, the awkward virgin smut**

 **now originally next chapter would have included Gajevy smut, but, plan changed a bit, so you gotta wait a little longer!**

 **Thanks so much to my good friend EddingsFan here on for helping me out a bit and being my editor. I really recommend you check out their fics, they're some cute FT ones!**


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